Grand Finale
by Pyeknu
Summary: I though I had lost this story, but thanks to the fellows at RAAC, it was saved and archived. Anyhow, this is a story I started to write back in 1998 about Ryou meeting up with his own twin sister Ren.
1. Ryou's Last Secret

Somewhere in time...  
  
The young boy runs through the jungle, screaming incoherently as he allows branches to whip past him, cut into his face. Tears form a stream to mark his passage. The ominous music of artillery is pierced by the irregular drumbeat of explosions as fire licks the air, a deathly pall hovering over the mountain village. That of course doesn't cover the acid stench, the sharp whiff of cordite mixed with the nauseating scent of burning flesh.  
  
His foot catches an exposed root as he falls flat on his face, mud staining him from head to toe. He gags on the foul mixture as he struggles to his feet, his ears detecting excited chatter in Spanish howling at his feet. Turning wide-eyed, he sees dark demons charge his way, weapons blinking as shells snap past his face. Fear stealing his voice, he scrambles back up to run away.  
  
"There he is!" one barks, pointing. "Get him!"  
  
The boy turns...and rams into a thick tree! Collapsing, he scrambles up, do anything to escape. The soldiers are nearly on him when a dark shadow suddenly emerges from the forest, a machine gun levelling on the boy's pursuers. A rain of shells later, the soldiers drop, the comic surprise of being bushwhacked by one of their own the last thing to cross their minds in this life.  
  
The boy shudders as the large man who saved his life steps out of the bush. Built like a tank, his bald head glistening with sweat and reflected sunlight, his eyes are masked by dark shooter's glasses as he shoulders his weapon, gazing at the child before him. "You're Japanese," he muses, then turns, his ears detecting the sounds of rebel soldiers rushing to investigate what happened. Gazing at the boy, a smile twitches his lips. "See you, kid."  
  
He disappears. The boy watches him, then blinks as his hazed vision masks the dark jungle around him, revealing an alien countryside in bright light, beautiful farms in neat lots dotting the landscape. In the middle of the field ran a pretty girl his age, with raven hair and dark blue eyes, dressed in a restrictive sort of gown with a wide belt. She was laughing, clearly having a fun time. That made the boy cry more.  
  
Suddenly, she stops, her head turning to gaze his way. Eyes widen in surprise, then she walks toward him. Neither children notice or really care that both are in vastly different places fifteen thousand kilometres apart. Kneeling, she gazes into his bleary eyes. "What's wrong?" she wonders.  
  
He gazes at her, feeling a wonderful warmth filling every part of his being. "M-my parents...m-my parents...!" he burbles, then wails, his strength sending him into the girl's embrace.  
  
"Are your parents hurt?" she asks.  
  
"Th-they're d-dead..."  
  
The girl sniffs, her own tears flowing in sympathy to his plight. "What's your name?"  
  
He gazes at her. "Ryou...Ryou Saeba."  
  
Surprise responds. "I'm Kiyomi Saeba. My friends call me Ren. I guess we're brother and sister!"  
  
Ryou blinks in surprise, then smiles. "Okay!!"  
  
* * *  
  
"Cityhunter - Grand Finale"  
  
by Fred Herriot  
  
fherriot@yahoo.com  
  
**** **** ****  
  
Parts 1-3 edited by E.B. Kushnir  
  
**** **** ****  
  
Based on "Cityhunter," created by Tsukasa Hojo  
  
**** **** ****  
  
WRITER'S NOTES:  
  
1) Surprising given its popularity in Asia on the backs of two live-action films, "Cityhunter" has had little exposure in anime fandom elsewhere outside the irregular dubbing of TV and OVA episodes. "Cityhunter" was one of the first series I learned of when I became an otaku; when I was a member of Endless Road APA, I wrote two small fanfics. This story, a "wrap it up" theme that could lead into a new fanfic series, has been preying on my mind for some time, so while I'm suffering writer's block with other stuff, I'll get it written.  
  
2) This story couldn't be possible without the assistance of the Jump Gold Selection #6 Anime Special "TV Animation Perfect Mook" on Cityhunter, released in October 1994. Copies in Korea cost 10,000 won if anyone's interested while I'm still here.  
  
3) I created Kiyomi "Ren" Saeba to answer a nagging question I have about Ryou. If he did lose his parents at a young age and was raised in Latin America, his first language would be Spanish, not Japanese (though if Hojo-sensei set this in Peru or another country with a nisei population, that'd explain it). I know the empathic link between twins hasn't been properly explained scientifically, so I might be stretching it here. Then again, I might not. ^_^  
  
4) This story is set anytime after the last Cityhunter OVA. I put Ryou's and Ren's age at 30, making Kaori about 25. Umibozu would then be in his mid-forties.  
  
5) Certain people's given names, like Saeko's father, are made by myself since my "Cityhunter" references don't list names for them.  
  
6) Ren's cats: Miki's name means "beautiful tree." R.N., atop being Reika's initials and the name of her agency, also represents a registered nurse. Black Rose comes from Kasumi's quest. "Cedar" is the first part of Kaori's family name. Sharon is from "the Rose of Sharon," the English name for a chrysanthemum. The Bruce is the nickname of the most famous Robert in history: King Robert of Scotland (see "Braveheart"). Wanderer comes from Sara being a missing child. Rose is part of Bloody Mary's real name, Rosemary. Dancer is from Maiko's career as a cabaret girl and Dreamer is Sonia's reflecting on her past with her father and Ryou.  
  
**** **** ****  
  
PART ONE - RYOU'S LAST SECRET  
  
"Geez, what happened here?! World War Three?!!"  
  
Saeko Nogami shudders, gazing at the sea of destruction before her, a sea which an hour before was a promising waterfront high- rise. Police and fire rescue personnel were everywhere, collecting bodies as they tried to piece the mess together. The inspector knew better. The New Harbour Centre was financed by a union of Yakuza with various drug cartels of South America looking for a way to launder their ill-gotten gains. Atop that, they had connections with terrorists operating throughout Asia, which meant this might become a transit point for weapons. Given the sometimes cordial relationship between law enforcement and "civilized" gangs, it was easy to predict the police would turn a blind eye to the Centre as long as civil order wasn't disturbed. Saeko was galled when she heard, so she decided it was time for a little civil disturbance.  
  
Enter from stage left: Ryou Saeba.  
  
Breathing in, she feigns innocence as a sergeant comes up. "Ma'am, we just broke into the basement of the Centre. Gods, it's like an armoury down there! What was going on here?!"  
  
"That's what I need you to find out, Sergeant," Saeko sweetly smiles, turning on the charm she had oft used to bluff her way past her male colleagues to get things done.  
  
"Yes, ma'am," he nods, then heads off.  
  
Another approaches a moment later. "Ma'am, we found this in what's left of the casino," he offers her an evidence bag.  
  
Saeko blinks, a chill locking her in place as she gazes at the revolver, blood splattered over it. A Colt Python .357 Magnum with an four-inch barrel. No fancy sights on it, but she knew who owned this particular piece. No, no, it wasn't possible...  
  
* * *  
  
The man staggers through the dark alleyway, feeling the mother of all headaches as he makes his way from dockside. Blood covers his forehead, a gash nearly hidden by a lock of black hair. His clothes...red shirt, black slacks and grey blazer...were splattered with blood. An empty pistol holster was tucked under his shoulder. No other injuries...except possible amnesia, the man had concluded.  
  
Once in the field of low light from a nearby street lamp, he sits down. His body seemed one giant ache from head to toe, his heart hammering from intense exertion. Exertion from what? Why couldn't he remember? Taking a deep breath, he gazes at his hands. Callouses covered the fingers and knuckles. Policeman, maybe? If so, where was his badge? In fact, where was any identification?  
  
Standing, he rifles his pockets. He wasn't in so much pain that nausea or vertigo didn't drop him; besides, he needed answers. His hands then fall on a small card in his pants pocket. Pulling it up, he squints. "'Ki-yo-mi Sa-e-ba,'" he reads, then blinks. At least he knew Kiyomi was a girl's name, so that couldn't be him.  
  
He then notes the address. Fukushima. Rifling his other pockets, he smiles on finding a change purse with bills. Good, at least he had train fare, plus meals. Thank the gods he didn't forget things like that. Maybe when he got somewhere to clean up, he'd start remembering the rest...like who he was.  
  
With that, he heads off to find a subway station, recognizing the southern districts of Tokyo. Maybe Kiyomi could help him...  
  
* * *  
  
"...explosions at the New Harbour Centre in Kawasaki attracted police and fire brigades to discover a large cache of illegal weapons and drugs, indicative that the building, long suspected of being a legal front for criminal activities, was a trans-shipment point for weapons smuggling. So far, no one has been able to determine what caused the explosions..."  
  
Umibozu morbidly laughs as he wipes the counter, periodically gazing at the scenes of destruction. Looks like Ryou had loads of fun tonight. Pity he wasn't cut in on the action; he wouldn't've minded the exercise. Still, Miki had wanted to do some shopping, so someone had to watch over the Cat's Eye. Probably soon, Ryou would pop in for a coffee and spill what happened, then saunter off to his usual haunts to debrief himself, cool off.  
  
Surprise then crosses his face as Saeko's car stops in front of the cafe, the inspector stepping out and striding to the door. A plastic bag with a revolver was in her hand. Ryou's Python. A chill races through his spine as she nearly bashes the door down, the look in her eyes telling him plenty.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Saeko sighs, slumping on a stool. Silence falls as she tries to gather her thoughts, then she gazes at him. "I may have sent him to die, Umibozu."  
  
"Ryou?!" the giant warrior humphs, then sighs. "Maybe."  
  
"You don't seem to care," Saeko glares at him.  
  
"You've never cared," he counters, a warning stare peeking out from beside his dark lenses.  
  
Saeko winces, the hit diving deep into her heart as another wash of guilt roars up her spine. Oh, yes, he was right. Saeko had, when things required the deft touch of the man many called Cityhunter, played Ryou like a harp, promising numerous sexual favours in return for his well-honed skills and his willingness to brush the limits of the law to get things done.  
  
Before tonight, she didn't care how he really felt about their game. After all, Ryou was someone who rarely demonstrated his real feelings to those he knew, even Kaori. Saeko's callousness irked Umibozu at times; even he, someone who after a lifetime of warfare, was still fumble-fingered around women, was caught by the inspector on occasion to do a favour or two. After the Bay City thing, Umibozu resolved to keep Saeko at arm's length. Ryou obviously didn't care when Saeko had come to him for tonight's job, allowing his emotions and libido to drive him...possibly to his death.  
  
"You're right."  
  
"Eh?" he looks at her.  
  
"I never cared."  
  
The inspector was trembling, her dispassionate mask cracking at the seams as tears flow down her cheeks. Sighing, he walks over to get some coffee, then hands it to her. "Saeko, let me tell you something. Ryou is a strange guy at times, but if you came to him because it was important, then deep down, he'd know how important it is and he'd do the job. He knows the risks. We all do in this trade. He knows that one day, he might not be lucky. He doesn't let that get him down. He may not speak it, but his actions do the talking. He cares a lot for people, even you."  
  
"You think he's alive?" Saeko gazes at him, surprised that she had heard so much from the normally stoic warrior at one time.  
  
"Maybe," Umibozu nods. "He's been through too much to let the characters running that place beat him. He may be hurt; I'll sweep the place when things cool off. But he knows how to survive when he's hurt. He's done it before, loads of times."  
  
Saeko blinks, then nods, sipping her coffee. The door then bangs open, revealing a very upset Kaori, 44 tonne hammer at the ready. "RYOU!!!!!! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!"  
  
She stops on seeing Saeko, then blinks, her eyes quickly noting the bag with the revolver. Umibozu sighs, then makes another cup. "Sit down, Kaori," he stares sympathetically at her. "There's something you better know..."  
  
* * *  
  
Feet pace one after the other as the woman makes her way through the bustling Shinjuku depot. Black T-shirt, black slacks and a grey blazer, the curves of her body very apparent. A .357 Desert Eagle was tucked under one arm. The cut of the blazer masked the pistol's presence; she had it made by a tailor who once worked for the police preparing clothes for undercover work.  
  
The woman was a curious mix of fashion model and tomboy, her hair cut in a taper to her neck, unruly combed over her forehead in spiky bangs. She was quite tall, able to look most men in the eyes. Passers by stare at her, then cower away, unsure as to how to take this strange vision in their midst.  
  
Making her way to the rows of lockers at one end, she stops before one fitted with a combination lock, a locker rented on a long-term basis to people who frequent the station. Spinning the dial, she opens the locker to find several folders located inside. Opening them, she confirms the contents, then heads off to get her bags, a porter waiting beside them. A sad smile cuts across her beautiful face as she tips him, directing her bags to a taxi.  
  
Finally, she would know the truth...  
  
* * *  
  
"It's not possible!!"  
  
Umibozu sighs, gazing at an ashen-faced Kaori as Miki cooks breakfast. After a restless night, she had come straight to Cat's Eye to get an update from Saeko. The inspector had quietly told various people on the street to keep an eye out for Ryou in case he was in the area of the New Harbour Centre. She was now at work getting updates. Saeko's father had no idea what she had done; he was presently being grilled by the Interior Minister for allowing weapons smuggling to go on right under the police's noses.  
  
"Relax, Kaori," Miki squeezes her friend's hand. "Ryou's been through a lot worse than this. Besides, think of how many people he could've saved from the weapons in that place. Reports on the news said there was enough stuff to equip an infantry battalion."  
  
"Y-yeah, that's true," Kaori nods, gazing at her untouched coffee. "Hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, huh."  
  
"That's the spirit!" Miki nods, then turns on the television. "Well, let's see what's on the..."  
  
Her voice catches as Ryou's image flashes on the screen, a commentator making his report. "...attack at the New Harbour Centre was reportedly perpetrated by Ryou Saeba, age unknown, a trader in Shinjuku many suspect is the mysterious yet legendary street mercenary known as Cityhunter..."  
  
Silence shrouds the Cat's Eye...  
  
* * *  
  
"How did they get the tapes?!!" Saeko barks.  
  
The sergeants before her tremble under the inspector's lethal gaze. Saeko paces before them like a hungry panther. "Will one of you *gentlemen* care to explain to me how security at the place was so lax that the media got hold of this?!" she hisses.  
  
The door opens. "I can explain that."  
  
"Father!" Saeko blinks as Commissioner Satoru Nogami walks in.  
  
"You gentlemen are dismissed," the commissioner waves them out, then stares neutrally at his eldest daughter.  
  
Saeko trembles, apprehension and cold rage fighting for control of her heart. "What's going on?"  
  
"I had those tapes released," the commissioner mirthlessly smiles. "After all, certain individuals were quite put off by what happened last night."  
  
"Why?!" her voice is ashes.  
  
He sighs. "The gangs were making a considerable amount of money from their operations at the New Harbour Centre. The loss of the Centre and the trust of the people who used it hurt them badly. They would naturally see fit to allow their clients to vent their rage at the loss of that particular venue...so to avert any ugly incidents, it was decided to feed them a bone."  
  
Saeko shudders, not wanting to believe this. Ryou was being made the fall guy for doing something that helped thousands of potential victims. "Do you have any concept of what could've happened if those guns weren't stopped?" she demands.  
  
"I've no illusions on that," her father replies. "I have no illusions that Saeba did a good thing. As much that I abhorred his methods, not to mention your working relationship with him, he had his uses in keeping things calm. But the elements involved at the New Harbour Centre were just too big to take down all at once."  
  
"What makes you think that?!" she slams her hands on the table, fighting the urge to slap him for stabbing her in the back like this. "What makes you think that it's alright to allow those animals to run loose, killing people, disrupting lives...?!"  
  
"And Saeba didn't?!!" he snaps. "This is NOT America, Saeko!! I know where he trained, where he made his mark!! I know his past all too well!! He sometimes acts like this was New York! This is Tokyo!! We do things different here!" Taking a breath, he stares at her. "Since Saeba has no living relatives and since he can be now presumed dead, the gangs will not do anything to 'avenge' what happened last night on innocent people!! This is straight from the Interior Minister, Saeko! Cityhunter...is dead!!"  
  
Saeko blinks, the coldness of his announcement ringing through her mind like a Buddhist's bell. "We don't know that..."  
  
"If he's alive, then the gangs will no doubt wish to chat with him over what he did," the commissioner turns to leave. "IF he's alive. I'm protecting you as well. If someone found out it was you that sent Saeba out, Saeko, your life won't be worth anything. Think about it, child."  
  
The door closes behind him. Saeko shudders, then sinks into her chair, covering her eyes...  
  
* * *  
  
"How could they do that to him?"  
  
Kaori stares at Saeko, white-faced over what the inspector had revealed later. "I don't know," Saeko tries desperately not to cry, then sips her coffee. "In a way, I understand. I got a look at some of those weapons, then heard about some of the groups that were using that place. These people make the Japanese Red Army look like wet-nosed kids."  
  
"Real bad?" Umibozu hums.  
  
Saeko nods ruefully. "With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of communism, a lot of pent-up hate is being unleashed around the world. People who've been supplied by Moscow for years lost their bankroll overnight. And these are people who've fought for so long, they've lost track of what they're fighting for, have come to like fighting and killing.  
  
"Atop that, you've got the economic slump in Japan and the currency problems elsewhere in Asia. A lot of people are going to be out of work in the next while. What do they eat? Where do they live? Crime becomes a big attraction to them; it's quick, easy money. The best of them will enter gangs.  
  
"Many of them, even the Yakuza, are switching to drug trading, forming links with the cartels in South America. They say a lot of people get into selling drugs because the demand is so high and the returns astronomical. That's money, money terrorists will be attracted to. Put it all together and it's one giant powderkeg ready to go off at a moment's notice."  
  
Everyone runs the scenario through their minds. "So until someone finds a way to diffuse those terrorists AND reinvigorate the economy to get people back to work...people have to keep a sharp eye out for things like the New Harbour Centre," Miki muses.  
  
"Exactly," Saeko nods, her hands waving around. "What's worse, the idiots in the Internal Ministry aren't looking at the bigger picture. All they care about is keeping the peace..."  
  
"Protecting their asses, you mean," Umibozu cuts in.  
  
"Got that right!" Saeko hisses. "If they're not stirring the pot, they think the gangs won't do a thing. That's bullshit!" she spits out, causing everyone to blink; profanity was not Saeko's usual way of expressing herself. "We would've been dealing with those guns and the thugs who use them sooner or later!"  
  
Grim nods respond as the door opens, the door chime pealing. Eyes turn to see Saeko's sister Reika walk in. "Coffee, please," she calls out, then slumps into a chair beside Kaori.  
  
"Any sign of him?" Umibozu wonders.  
  
"Nada. Not a lick," Reika sips the brew placed before her. "It's like he vanished from the face of the planet...or..."  
  
"Don't say that!!" Kaori snaps...  
  
* * *  
  
The man watches the beautiful countryside pass by, having left Tokyo two hours before after a trip to a public bath to tend to his wounds, a laundromat to wash his clothes and a pharmacy to get pain killers and bandages. He ditched the holster; he saw no reason to hang onto it since he had no weapon. He knew he was a good shot with any weapon. How he learned it was a mystery. Shaking his head, he relaxes. It would be a couple hours to Fukushima.  
  
His eyes then notice an elderly woman gazing at him. "A problem, Obaa-sama?" he wonders.  
  
She smiles. "You did good work last night, Saeba-san. Those thugs you fought were so awful; I don't believe a word they said about you on television."  
  
He blinks. "Excuse me...you know me?"  
  
Concern replies. "Is there something wrong?"  
  
"I...I seem to have got a bout of amnesia," he embarrassingly laughs, shrugging sheepishly, then points to his forehead.  
  
"Ah!" she nods. "Well, in your line of work, I'm not so surprised. Here," she hands him a paper.  
  
He blinks, staring at himself. Ryou Saeba. So that was his name. Was Kiyomi a relative? Sweeper? A hired mercenary who also worked as a bodyguard, special operative and private investigator all in one. A special problem solver. So that's who and what he was! Cityhunter...his street name. "Thank you," he nods, then plunges into the article to finally get some answers.  
  
"Where are you going?" the woman wonders.  
  
"Fukushima," he replies. "There's someone I've got to meet. Someone...I hope could help me remember a few things."  
  
She nods. "Be careful, Saeba-san. Those people you fought weren't the least bit nice. Your friends could be hurt if they find out you're still alive since the police think you're dead."  
  
Ryou blinks, then grimly nods. "Then it's best that I disappear for a while."  
  
* * *  
  
"I'd like these filed right away, please."  
  
The clerk at the Shinjuku District Chamber of Commerce blinks, then stares at the forms. Standard change of business ownership forms for a private firm. Saeba Enterprises. Change of ownership from Ryou Saeba, president and founder, to his sister Kiyomi "Ren" Saeba. He blinks as the news reports he saw earlier come back to him. "You're Cityhunter's sister?"  
  
"The same," Ren nods; she had seen those reports. Of course, the part about Ryou being dead was a lie. She would've sensed it. He was alive though she was having problem trying to detect him even after meditating. Something was wrong, but after checking out the locker, she knew he got her card with her parents' address. If he was in trouble, he knew he had support.  
  
He smiles, sympathy in his eyes. "I heard about what happened to him on the news. Personally," he looks around, then lowers his voice, "...the idiots in the government're being assholes over this whole thing. I hope he's okay."  
  
"He'll be fine. He survived fighting in South America and the streets of New York and Los Angeles. Tokyo is much easier."  
  
The clerk nods, then stares at the forms. Signed three days before. "I'll have these filed right away, Miss Saeba."  
  
"Thank you," Ren nods. "Could you direct me to the district property office, please? I have the forms right here," she taps the other folder in her hand.  
  
"It's three doors down," he nods down the hallway, then writes a name on a card before handing it to her. "See this person. I'll tell her you're coming to see her."  
  
"Thank you," Ren nods, then leaves...  
  
* * *  
  
Kaori blinks, surprised to see the news media camped in front of hers and Ryou's apartment building. As soon as she emerges from the mini, the reporters rush toward her...then back off the instant Umibozu steps out of the Jeep that followed Kaori home. "Are you Cityhunter's partner?!!" a dozen yell out at once as Kaori is blinded by multiple flashlights.  
  
Umibozu falls in behind her as she stops before the reporters, trembling under the eyes of the world. Taking a deep breath, she stares at them. "I'll...yes, I'm Ryou's partner."  
  
"Why did he attack the New Harbour Centre?" a reporter asks.  
  
"Who informed him about the weapons there?" another wonders.  
  
"What was his beef against the drug cartels?!" a third asks.  
  
Kaori shudders as the questions keep coming...  
  
* * *  
  
"Sign here please."  
  
Ren fixes her signature to the document transferring control of Ryou's apartment building to her, the transfer arranged three days before. The clerk for the district office, a pretty young woman, smiles at her. "Is that it?" Ren wonders.  
  
"Yes, Miss Saeba," the clerk nods, then sighs. "You know, your brother is a good man. He killed that roadside assassin that stalked young women here some years ago. He might've been a hentai at times, but people appreciated him for things like that."  
  
"He has his moments," Ren files everything into her briefcase, then bows. "Thank you."  
  
"You're welcome," the clerk nods...  
  
* * *  
  
"That's enough!"  
  
A growling cough escapes Umibozu as the reporters realize Kaori had a friend who didn't like them hassling her. "She isn't Princess Diana," the large warrior grumbles. "Can't you see she's been badly shaken up by what happened?! Leave her alone!"  
  
"Hey, pal, we're doing our jobs here!" a reporter protests...  
  
...then his voice drops to a squeak as Umibozu leans down at him. "Then do them elsewhere," he snarls.  
  
A car is heard. Eyes turn as a beautiful red Mazda drives into the parking lot beside the mini. The door opens, the driver disembarking in what seems like slow motion as hauntingly familiar features become apparent. Kaori's jaw drops in disbelief as Ren closes the door, then walks up to her. Yes, this was a woman...but the similarities in height, eyes, hair and facial features...all that was so much like Ryou...  
  
This was Ryou's...sister?!  
  
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," Ren's face is neutral as she gazes at the reporters. "May I ask what you're all doing on my property harassing my houseguest?"  
  
Kaori blinks. "This is Cityhunter's home, lady," one of the reporters snaps as a photographer moved to snap a picture.  
  
Ren's hand is a blur as the Desert Eagle fills her palm, the barrel snapping out. Several shots later, shattered cameras fall to the ground, the photographers howling in pain from shards of glass and shattered plastic, the reporters backing away from the woman. "You are on my property without a reason. I don't see a badge on any of you, so you're not police officers. Now, do I ask you to leave or do I call the police or ask my friend here," she nods towards Umibozu, "...to *escort* you off the property?"  
  
Taking the not-so-subtle hint, the reporters quickly withdraw to their waiting vehicles. Ren holsters her weapon, then stares at them. "By the way, if you're so interested as to how Cityhunter found out about the New Harbour Centre, why don't you ask the police? They're the ones who released the information about his involvement in the first place. Ever think they were using you?"  
  
Surprised in the eyes of several of the newshounds tell Ren that her words had hit the mark. With that, they disappear. Ren heads inside. Kaori and Umibozu remain in place, staring at the stranger who seemed more a twin to Ryou than just in looks. The former turns to the latter. "Umibozu-san...who is she?"  
  
The giant sighs, then stares at her. "You're about to learn Ryou's last secret, Kaori. C'mon, let's go inside."  
  
* * *  
  
"Fukushima! Fukushima station..."  
  
Ryou sighs as he disembarks the train, gazing around. He nods thanks to the elderly woman who had given him her paper, then heads for the exits. Along the way, he attracts the attention of two cops munching down some ramen in a kiosk by the door. "Hey, Sarge, look who it is!" the young rookie points.  
  
The sergeant looks over, then blinks. "I'll be damned. What's he doing up here?"  
  
"Shouldn't we be doing something?"  
  
The older officer hums. He personally thought the whole idea of dropping the onus for the New Harbour Centre raid on a man whose reputation as a problem solver, a helper of innocents, was pretty solid even with the police, was way out of line even for the idiots in the Interior Ministry. He then notices the bandages on Ryou's forehead. Sighing, he stares at his partner. "We have no orders to arrest him or send him back to Tokyo. Haven't you ever heard about harassing civilians without justification?"  
  
The rookie blinks, then watches Ryou get into a taxi. "Yeah, I know he did a good thing, but what happens when the jerks he went after find out he's here?"  
  
"We watch him," the sergeant replies. "We go back to the station, tell the lieutenant VERBALLY that Cityhunter's in town, possibly wounded and looking for a place to relax and heal, then we find out where he's staying and keep an eye on the place...and we keep it quiet," he adds before turning back to his ramen. "If those dorks in the Ministry wanna keep coddling the druggies to keep the peace, then we play along...in our own way. Besides, your ramen's getting cold; you better finish it up."  
  
"Right!" the rookie turns to his bowl...  
  
* * *  
  
"Here you go, Saeba-san," the driver smiles.  
  
Ryou blinks, gazing at the beautiful single-family dwelling some kilometres outside of Fukushima. A nameboard emblazoned SAEBA is fixed to the gate. A well-tenured farm. "Are you sure this is the place?" he stares at the hack.  
  
"What the card said," the driver nods, then stares at the house. "I know of these people. Good family. They got a daughter who looks a lot like you. Relatives of yours?"  
  
"I wish I knew," Ryou smiles apologetically, then hands him the fare before stepping outside. "Thanks."  
  
"Anytime," the driver nods as he pulls away. Gazing at the tall man as he heads toward the house, the hack bites his lips. Personally, drug dealers scared him; he had two kids in public school and had heard of the stories of drug dealers making their way into schools in America. If that came here...!  
  
Shaking his head, he moves to grab his CB mike, then pauses. Would someone be monitoring the frequency, someone who didn't mind trying to cash information in for money? Biting his lips, he sighs. He had a friend who was a cop, a sergeant with some years experience on the streets. He'd visit him later and pass the news on, hopefully somewhere where there weren't prying ears...  
  
* * *  
  
"So, you really do exist."  
  
Ren gazes around the living room, then smiles at Umibozu, who had placed himself in a chair. Kaori took another chair, staring apprehensively at the beautiful woman with them, scarcely believing that Ryou Saeba, the original orphan of war, had a living relative. Yet the documents Ren had placed before her confirmed it...and gave Kaori a new boss. "Yeah, Umi-chan, I exist," Ren nods, relaxing in a love seat next to her brother's friend/rival. "How do you want to go by? Umibozu, Falcon or Hayato?"  
  
"Whatever way you want," the larger warrior shrugs.  
  
"Okay, Hayato-kun," Ren nods, then sighs. "Gods, twenty years since I finally learned about Ryou-chan and I'm here at last with no idea where he is or how to find him."  
  
"Chasing those newsies off by siccing them on the police won't work for long," Kaori warns. "They'll want to know who you are, especially since you shot their cameras apart. Reporters don't like being harassed by people they're interested in."  
  
"Reporters don't like being rolled," Ren grins savagely. "If they get curious, I'll drop them a further hint, pointing them right at old man Nogami. That should teach the asshole not to stab people in the back if nothing else will."  
  
"How do you know all this?" Kaori blinks.  
  
"I'm his twin sister; I was born six minutes before him," Ren shrugs. "I've been able to sense my brother since we were ten. Thoughts, experiences, things like that."  
  
Kaori blinks. "Then...he's known you for just as long..." she then turns to Umibozu. "When did you find out?"  
  
"There are three people who know Ryou who've also known about Ren. You have to understand, Ryou didn't know if she existed or not, much like she didn't know he existed...until recently, which explains why she's here. If he told you, would you've believed him? At most, Ren could've been the product of a very overworked imagination...or something clinically worse."  
  
"I guess so," Kaori bites her lips. "So who else knows?"  
  
"Kenny Field and Bloody Mary."  
  
Kaori feels a twinge of sorrow arc through her. Two people, one dead, who knew more of Ryou's shady past than she ever did, something that annoyed her to no end at times. Still, if Ryou didn't have solid proof about Ren, keeping quiet seemed prudent. "So what made you come down here?" she gazes at her.  
  
"When Saeko-chan came to him with the New Harbour Centre job, he did an initial reconnaissance of the place and got an idea how tough a nut it was to crack," Ren sighs. "Personally, Hayato-kun, not bringing you into it was dumb. So, when I sensed what he was up against, I offered to take over in case...the worst happened."  
  
"But you don't think that, right?"  
  
"No, I didn't sense him die," Ren nods, the assurance in her eyes making Kaori feel much easier. "So my first priority is to find him, see if he's alright, then we'll finish the job."  
  
"I'm ready!" Kaori braces herself.  
  
Ren *glares* at her. "You have a choice in this matter, Makimura-san," her voice turns frosty. "Since I am now the owner of this company and this building, you're now working for me. You can continue to do so or you can leave."  
  
She reaches into her bag, handing Kaori a bankbook. "This is an account Ryou-chan kept on your behalf for emergencies like this. There's fifty million yen there now. If you wish to go, you'll have money to get into university and start your own career."  
  
Kaori's jaw drops in shock on seeing the record of deposits, which ran back several years, since the time they began working together. Not a single withdrawal and the account was a savings account with high interest. "My brother never spent *all* his time drinking the earnings from his jobs," Ren muses. "If you wish to stay, understand *I'm* the boss now until Ryou-chan gets back."  
  
"I'll stay," Kaori hands the book back. "Ryou's my partner. I'm not abandoning him now."  
  
A *look* drills into her, causing Kaori to perspire heavily. "You got a lot of gall saying you're Ryou-chan's partner since you're nowhere near trained to be a proper sweeper," Ren hums. "If you want to be his partner, you better brush up on a lot of things, Kaori-kun. I may have not spent my youth in a South American jungle, but I'm not slouch in that department. There's still a lot of things you need to learn about this job."  
  
"Wh-what do y-you mean?"  
  
"One: curb the temper," Ren sighs. "Keep it away from when you're using a weapon. You take a gun or bazooka in your hands, your take lives into your hands. One stray shot can kill as good as one aimed shot. Two: stop pretending this is a game. As you saw last night, this can be life and death. Take it seriously. You're not Jane Rambo. Our opponents won't collapse like a house of cards when you bust the door down. You never spent your whole life living on the edge, so you're nowhere near expert on what it means to face the dark side of human nature. Got it?"  
  
"Hai," Kaori nods, cowed.  
  
"One more thing," Ren stands, raising a finger in warning. "Keep the hammers out of my way, Kaori-kun...or else, YOU'LL be the one swinging out a window on a rope at nights."  
  
Kaori shudders, seeing the steel in the woman's eyes, then nods as she quickly withdraws to her bedroom. Umibozu watches her go, then gazes at Ren. "You didn't have to do that, you know."  
  
"I had to," Ren sighs. "If Kaori-kun wants to eventually marry my brother, I won't stop her...but I know my brother doesn't love her in that fashion, not yet at least. Part of him feels he'd be betraying Hideyuki-kun if he tried to get close to her. 'Sides, my brother's lost a lot of people who were very close. Our aunt and uncle, his adopted parents during the war, Sonia's dad..."  
  
"He's afraid he'd lose Kaori," Umibozu muses, then stares at her. "What about you? You've got a 'partner of partners?'"  
  
"Me?!" Ren muses, then whistfully sighs. "Someone..."  
  
* * *  
  
To be continued... 


	2. Lost Chances

"Yes?"  
  
"Forgive me, ma'am," Ryou smiles as he gazes on the elderly woman before him. "This is where Kiyomi Saeba lives, correct?"  
  
"Yes, who...?" the woman, in her early fifties, blinks, then her eyes widen as a stab of haunting familiarity crosses her. "Oh, Lord, it can't be...!" she covers her mouth. "Ryou-chan!!"  
  
The sweeper gasps as she nearly kills him with a vize-like embrace. "Dear, what is it?" a man's voice wonders from inside.  
  
"Honey, look, look who it is!!" she grabs Ryou and drags him into the house. "Look who's come back!!!"  
  
In the living room, an elderly man of fifty-five gazes at the taller man before him, then gapes. "God, is it...?!"  
  
"It is, it is!!" his wife nods.  
  
"Who are you?!!" Ryou wonders.  
  
They stare at him, then beam. "Ryou, we're your parents!" the wife points to herself, then her husband. "I'm Ikuko Saeba and this is your father, Yoshihide."  
  
Ryou turns to a wedding photograph, from over thirty years ago, sitting on a nearby mantlepiece. The man in the couple was a lighter-haired version of himself, the woman equal in stature to her groom, possessing a confidant air alien to most Japanese women of the time. Shuddering as pain arcs through his skull, he gasps, a torrent of questions he had inwardly asked for years flooding back to him. Nearly collapsing, he trembles on feeling his mother's comforting touch on his shoulder.  
  
"I never knew...I never thought...I never once wondered...!"  
  
"Ryou-chan," Ikuko sighs, then embraces him...  
  
* * *  
  
"Cityhunter - Grand Finale"  
  
by Fred Herriot  
  
fherriot@yahoo.com  
  
**** **** ****  
  
Parts 1-3 edited by E.B. Kushnir  
  
**** **** ****  
  
Based on "Cityhunter," created by Tsukasa Hojo  
  
**** **** ****  
  
PART TWO - LOST CHANCES  
  
"This, I do NOT believe!!" Miki gasps.  
  
"Believe it!" Kaori sighs while nursing her coffee at Cat's Eye as night began to fall. Ren was now busy getting things moved into the apartment, including her own assistant. "I mean, I never thought that Ryou even had any living relatives, never though to persuade him to investigate..."  
  
"He was afraid," Umibozu sighs.  
  
"Of what?!" Kasumi Asou muses.  
  
"Of losing any relatives he may have left here like he lost his adopted parents in South America," the large warrior sighs, gazing at Kaori. "Not to mention several of his past partners."  
  
Kaori shudders as what always bothered her about Ryou's emotional remoteness began making sense. The man's personal life was edged in the blood of loved ones and good friends, her brother's being the latest. It was a wonder he wasn't committed from being overwhelmed in grief. "I thought you once said that he wanted me to be his 'partner of partners.'"  
  
"I did. I meant it," Umibozu sighs.  
  
"No wonder Ren wants to beef up my training," Kaori stares at her coffee. "I suppose Ryou's got a point, though. Try as I might, I still make a mess of things whenever it hits the fan."  
  
"But you are getting better," Umibozu gazes at her, a rare smile twitching his lips. "Ren is obviously more open to the idea of you being Ryou's partner than Ryou himself, which is why she wants you to improve your skills. You'll have a good teacher, Kaori. You listen to everything she tells you."  
  
"What makes you think she's that good, Umibozu-san?" Kasumi gazes quizzically at him.  
  
"She's Sakuko."  
  
Miki pales. Kasumi and Kaori blink. "What are the Sakuko?" the latter wonders. "I know the Sakuko in history were the laws the Tokugawas passed to keep Western ideology out of Japan, but..."  
  
"They're Japan's version of the KGB's or the DGSE's 'black' intelligence operations," Miki hisses. "They're assassins."  
  
"Masaka!!" Kasumi gapes.  
  
"Not that dark," Umibozu chuckles morbidly. "The Sakuko were an outgrowth of the liberalization movement in the Taisho era. When the leaders of that group were done away with in the 1930s, the others went underground, forming a silent rebellion against the war in China, then against the Americans. After the war, forward- thinking elements in the CIA learned of them and transformed them into an organization that would keep watch over the zaibatsu as the post-war liberalization lost steam as we tried to protect ourselves against Communism." He stares at his wife. "They're the bottom line. If the Sakuko get on your case, you did something VERY bad."  
  
"You ever wondered what happened to that fringe element of the Aum group in Kyoto after the gas attacks?" Miki muses. "Most likely, it was your new employer who did that."  
  
"But they said it was a mass suicide..." Kasumi gasps.  
  
"That's what you were meant to believe," Miki warns.  
  
Kasumi and Kaori exchange looks. "She's THAT good?" the former gapes at her employer.  
  
"Hai, that she is," Miki nods. "Especially if she's been copying knowledge from Ryou."  
  
Kaori shudders. Ren had that steel-like quality, the same icy determination Ryou demonstrated when innocents were hurt or killed. And if she was artistic enough to dress the execution of a dozen Aum cult members look like a mass suicide and made it plausible for the police, she was near or at Umibozu's level! "Wow!!"  
  
"Strange that we've never heard of them before," Kasumi muses.  
  
"You wouldn't," Miki sighs. "The Sakuko are practically a law unto themselves. They answer to the Imperial Palace Agency..."  
  
"To the Emperor himself, you mean," Kaori hums.  
  
"Exactly," Miki nods. "General MacArthur was one smart man when he realized what could happen if the drive to bring to justice those who instigated Nanking, the comfort women problem and other things was ended. So he and Emperor Showa arranged to have the Sakuko be made a branch of the Imperial Palace Agency. They do not report to the Cabinet or the Prime Minister, only to the Emperor. And even with our looking on the Emperor as a normal man instead of a living deity these days, do we question what the Emperor does?"  
  
"Would the zaibatsu question it?" Umibozu adds.  
  
"Whoa!!" Kaori whistles admiringly. "Talk about a blow from the blindside! Who'd ever see it?!"  
  
And that was very true. Even now, with the current Emperor having grown up with the idea of being the "living symbol of all that is Japan," few in the Land of the Rising Sun would pry into the goings on within the Palace. This WASN'T Great Britain and the Imperial Family WEREN'T the House of Windsor. And it obviously worked; Kaori had never heard of the Sakuko before meeting Ren.  
  
The door chimes ring as a young woman in her late twenties with square-cut dark brown hair and glasses over brown eyes, now in a relaxed business suit, walks in. "Good evening, Makimura-san," she smiles at Kaori. "Everything's all set up and ready to go."  
  
"Great!" Kaori stands, then turns to the others. "You folks want to come meet everyone?"  
  
Everyone nods...  
  
* * *  
  
"Who got the press to believe that I leaked the information?!" Commissioner Nogami glares at his top deputies.  
  
"From what we could tell, there's someone new living at the Saeba residence," the chief of the Shinjuku branch sighs. "We're having people look into the files at the property office and the Chamber of Commerce right now."  
  
"That will not be necessary, gentlemen."  
  
Eyes turn to see a wizened sixty year old with balding silver hair and a beaver-tail goatee, sharp black eyes piercing his lined face, step into the office. "Aramaki!" Nogami nearly gags.  
  
"Surprised, Commissioner?" the older man hums, then stares at the other police officers. "Leave us."  
  
They awkwardly withdraw. Aramaki sighs as Nogami sinks into his chair. "What is the Sakuko doing now?" the police officer demands.  
  
Aramaki smiles. Officially, he was His Imperial Majesty's Special Inspector of Public Safety, a respected and legal "spy" for the Emperor whose presence was given the highest level of courtesy by lesser officials. No one in positions of real power who could, with a slip of the tongue, embarrass the Sakuko, knew Aramaki's real story. "We were not impressed when you tried to put the onus on Ryou Saeba for the New Harbour Centre raid, Commissioner. I thought you knew better than that. You were rid of the weapons and dealt a serious blow to fifteen separate groups. Why instigate revenge against someone who seriously undermined those groups' abilities to cause future harm? His Majesty is very displeased."  
  
Nogami sits still, impaled by Aramaki's stare. Even though he was safe from direct repercussions, a whispered word in the Interior Minister's ear by His Majesty would ruin his career. "What makes you think your ninjas can do something about them?"  
  
"We WILL do something about them," Aramaki rises. "Do not press the matter of who now lives in Ryou Saeba's house further, for your sake, Nogami-kun. The matter will be resolved."  
  
With that, the special inspector leaves. Nogami shudders, then deflates in his chair...  
  
* * *  
  
"Well, I did it, Hideyuki-kun," Saeko tearfully gazes at the grave marker before her. "I really fouled things up this time. Damn, why couldn't I've tried to talk to Ryou instead of always playing that game with him? Why...?"  
  
The inspector lowers her eyes. It was getting dark, the kanji for MAKIMURA barely visible from nearby street lamps. It had been so long since she last visited Hideyuki's resting place. Saeko never came when Kaori and Ryou visited the grave, never wanting the younger Makimura to know the depths of feelings she had for her brother. Always keep people guessing your true feelings, an inner voice repeated again and again. Never let them see your heart. Never let them see you vulnerable. Emotions were a fatal weakness, easily exploited by others. Don't let them see YOU.  
  
They were rules Saeko lived by, had lived by for years. Vicious, painful as they were to her heart and spirit, they had helped in a male-dominated world where a woman's place after high school and university was still seen as the home, and certainly not beating the streets hunting Yakuza. She had tried to earn a place in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on terms of merit, earning the respect of her comrades in arms as she did her job.  
  
It never worked.  
  
"She's the chief's daughter," they said in the locker rooms. She got there thanks to special favours the old man called in.  
  
"She's no REAL cop!" they sneered behind her back.  
  
And never would be.  
  
Saeko spent times alone in her apartment at nights, fighting her heart's desire to rail at the injustice of it all. Many times she failed, weeping herself to sleep, but when the alarm went off the next morning, she regained the strength to deal with the veiled insults and barely hidden disgust.  
  
It was partially because of that she liked working with Ryou. Cityhunter was a man who had seen women fight for their lives in a place where the only rule was survive or die, accepting Saeko on merit, her word on any problem as sacrosanct. It made their game seem more silly especially now, but probably Ryou was, in his own unique way, trying to help Saeko lighten up, feel better about herself. She cared for him all the more because of it.  
  
Saeko feels her mouth twitch in a wry grin. Hideyuki would find it ironic, the way Saeko looked on Ryou. Hideyuki had been told about Ren by Ryou sometime prior to his death, showing him the level of trust Cityhunter gave his partner. Hideyuki had passed it on to Saeko when they were on an infrequent date. It had been a splash of cold water to her, to realize that the man she relied on to handle the special problems...  
  
...was the brother of Saeko's partner and lover in the Sakuko.  
  
Saeko rises, turning back to her car.  
  
It had been seven years since Saeko last called Ren "Angel."  
  
Seven years since she last heard Ren call her "Sparkles."  
  
Seven years too long...  
  
* * *  
  
"***CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATS!!!!!!***"  
  
Everyone turns to see Umibozu collapsed on the floor, passed out after a half-dozen of Ren's brood of fifteen had swarmed the giant warrior when he stepped into the living room. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Ren's assistant Shizuka Nakimura gapes. "I didn't realize Ijuuin-san suffered from ailurophobia."  
  
"He's been slowly trying to overcome it, especially after the problem with that robber at the Cat's Eye," Miki smiles, happy to see how human her husband still was even under his stony exterior.  
  
"Well, we might as well help him out of it," Ren sighs, shooing the loveable scamps away, then kneels beside Umibozu. "Hey, Hayato-kun, Ryou-chan's trying to mokkori Maki-chan again!"  
  
"***WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!***" Umibozu bolts to his feet, his eyes darting left and right, then he clicks back in. "Eh?! Wait a sec'; Maki's with...!!"  
  
Laughter tickles his ears as the cats warily prowl around this giant in their domain, many growling at his rudely throwing them off him. "That got him back up in no time at all!" Miki beams.  
  
"You really are a white knight, aren't you?!" Shizuka sighs, a light flush in her cheeks telling everyone how she thought deep down of such noble men.  
  
"Never mind!" Ren sighs, waving everyone to sit down, shooing the cats away. "Well, now that we're here, let's get something to eat! I'm starved and I haven't eaten anything since before leaving home this morning. It's no wonder I'm so light-headed."  
  
Umibozu tippy-toes through the fifteen balls of mewling fur, sweating as if caught in the middle of a mine field as Kaori calls for take out. Relaxing in a chair, he breathes easy...then jerks fearfully as a white Turkish Angora lands on his shoulder, sniffing his cheeks before rubbing her body over him to claim the giant as her territory. Another, a tabby Maine Coon male, hops into his lap, causing the Angora to spit out, swiping at the tomcat with a paw. The Maine Coon growls, then trudges off Umibozu to relax by a comfortable pillow, leaving the giant in the Angora's "hands" as she assumes the tomcat's place, snuggling herself in the folds of his uniform. *Just my luck!!* Umibozu shudders as he tries to stay upright. *Ryou's sister HAS to be a cat lover!*  
  
Miki steps in from the kitchen, a pot of tea and several cups in hand. She blinks on seeing the cat in her husband's lap, then after placing the tray down by Kaori, marches over. "And who are YOU to flirt with MY husband, young lady?" she hums haughtily.  
  
The Angora growls as the Maine Coon leaps onto her shoulder, purring almost seductively as he wraps his tail around Miki's neck. "Cityhunter, stop being such a flirt!" Ren notices the goings on. "Sparkles, off him. You're making him hyper-ventilate."  
  
"'Cityhunter?!'" Miki blinks.  
  
"'Sparkles?!'" Umibozu feels a wave of calm overcome him.  
  
"Hai," Ren walks over to drag the Maine Coon off Miki. "This one's just like Ryou-chan; a horny stud that always flirts with the girls. As for the one you have, Hayato-kun," she nods to the Angora, "she's like my old action team partner. Ready to paw up to every guy who crosses her path, milk him for all he's worth."  
  
Umibozu then relaxes as Miki lifts Sparkles from him, placing her in her own. A resentful snort blows out Sparkles's nose as she lies in Miki's lap. Ren mounts Cityhunter on her shoulder as she relaxes in a chair. "You named that one after Ryou?" Kaori blinks, then yelps as a calico Japanese bobtail lands hard on her shoulder, then licks her. "Hey!! Cut it out!"  
  
"That's Hammers," Ren points.  
  
"'Hammers?'" Kaori blinks.  
  
"Yeah, she always bops you with her body when you least want it," Ren snickers.  
  
Kaori flushes as everyone laughs, even Umibozu. At that moment, a very stocky Russian Blue plods into the room, then plants himself in a free chair. "And that one?" Miki points.  
  
"Falcon," Ren smiles at Umibozu. "My oldest...but still the best mouser around."  
  
Umibozu harrumphs, trying not to show his embarrassment too much. Falcon is then joined by a slender calico shorthair female. "And that's Cherry Blossom, his steady," Ren smiles at Miki. "After all, what more beautiful tree is there in Japan?"  
  
Miki flushes as Ren introduces the rest: Nurse (in honour of Reika), Black Rose (Kasumi), Cedar (Hideyuki), Sharon (Kikunosuke Fubuki), The Bruce (Robert Harrison), Princess (Angela), Wanderer (Sara Nishikujou), Rose (Bloody Mary), Dancer (Maiko Tsugihara) and Dreamer (Sonia Field). The others are amazed. "That's how much you've been able to sense from Ryou?" Miki wonders.  
  
"Hai," Ren nods. "In fact, it's because of that, I became such a good Crusader in the Sakuko."  
  
"Crusader?" Kasumi wonders.  
  
"In a perverted sort of revenge against those who hunted them over the years, most of the Sakuko's founders were Christians," Ren chuckles. "Catholics for the most part, but Protestants like Shizuka-chan are there, too. It's a good thing; we possess close ties to the Vatican, which, thanks to their own intelligentsia, gives us a very long reach in certain areas. We've always used old Church terms to codify our mission tasks."  
  
"Wow!!" Kaori whistles, then jolts as Hammers bops her cheek. "Learn something new every day. Who've ever think of it?"  
  
"Especially here in Japan?" Miki smiles. "Then again, Ryou is Catholic, isn't he?"  
  
"He was baptised as such when he was in South America. I know he's not a regular church-goer," Kaori nods, no longer feeling lost when speaking of her partner's past. She then gazes at Ren. "Ren, could you tell me what other relatives you have...?"  
  
* * *  
  
"You mean it was my uncle and aunt who were with me?"  
  
"Hai," Ikuko nods as the doctor takes a look at Ryou in the living room of the Saeba home. With the shock of discovering his parents alive awakening his jarred memory, Cityhunter consented to have a doctor examine him...in secrecy and at home; Yoshihide had to drive down to find the doctor in case the phones were bugged. Mami Takagi, a member of the Sakuko's medical wing ("Monks/Nuns" in the group's parlance), was happy to come; she had healed Ren many times and was one of the few in the organization privy to Ren's dreams of her brother. Word was being funnelled back to Tokyo by messenger. "They were missionaries to spread the faith in South America. We've always assumed you were lost with them."  
  
"Until your sister started having visions of seeing you in the jungle fighting that war," Yoshihide sighs. "What was it like?"  
  
*Filthy, boring, hungry, terrifying past any nightmare,* Ryou bites his lips. "Another time, Dad."  
  
"Understandable," Mami sighs. "There are times Ren had nightmares of what she experienced...and she wasn't as active for as long as you were, nor did she experience it at as young an age. I don't blame you for not wanting to speak of it."  
  
"She told you her stories?" Ryou gazes at her.  
  
"Many times. After her lover left to join the Tokyo police, Ren needed someone to be her confidant, the person she could use to de-brief herself, wind down. I stepped into that place."  
  
"You mean Sparkles?"  
  
"Hai...oh, you know her!" Mami blinks, then smiles.  
  
"I've heard of her, felt Ren-chan dream of her a lot," Ryou nods, grinning mischievously. "Most beautiful set of legs there ever was attached to a dynamite body and matched to a razor-sharp mind. That's Ren-chan's usual way of thinking of her."  
  
The doctor laughs, then blinks as a reticent look crosses the sweeper's face. "What is it?"  
  
"I got her into the Sakuko," Ryou bites his lips.  
  
"Ryou!!" Ikuko gasps. "Ren-chan got herself into..."  
  
"No, Mom, I did!!" Ryou sighs, staring at his hands. "When I was in the jungle, the only time I really felt at peace with myself was when I thought of Ren-chan. I told her what I experienced from when I lost my adopted parents, then I learned how to fight...it rubbed off on her!" He then looks at Mami. "Ren-chan was inducted into the Sakuko because she fit the right sort of psychological profile to be an assassin, right?"  
  
"That's right," the doctor nods. "But don't consume yourself with guilt, man. What you experienced is what anyone experiences when their homes and families are ripped away. That's what you and your friends were really fighting for, Ryou...and despite what outside propaganda said at the time, that was a good fight. That's why Ren made herself into something we'd want to fight for us. She wanted to fight for the good things, too. You didn't MAKE her be one of us, Ryou, you INSPIRED her to be one of us. And we, from Director Aramaki down, have always been grateful."  
  
Ryou blinks, then sighs. "Not the gratitude I'd want."  
  
"I know," Mami nods. "But there is one thing all the people know, all the people say, about Cityhunter. He always fights for the little folk, the ones who can't fight themselves. Yeah, he's a would-be Casanova and all that, but when the chips are down, he's there for you a hundred and ten percent. And Ren has done her upmost to be the same, even from her veil of secrecy."  
  
Ryou hums, then gazes out the window at the small farm his parents owned. Simple country farmers, his mother had told him; the family had moved up from Nagasaki, the birthplace of Japanese Christianity, over the last century seeking better land, a place to feel at home. They had held onto their faith throughout centuries of persecution, from the rabid xenophobia of the Tokugawas to the hectic years of the Restoration to the anti-Westernism of the militarists in the early decades of the Showa Age. Many relatives had migrated abroad during those years, mostly to South America, where the faith was strong and allowed them to be accepted. His uncle and aunt had wanted to go there too, keep the links with relatives intact. And they died for their devotion to family.  
  
Ryou sometimes wondered how he was able to learn Spanish AND Japanese in the jungles, how many nisei had been with his rebel battalion fighting the junta that had swept his adopted homeland. He dimly remembered his adopted father, Juan-Antonio Saeba...was he a second or third-generation relative?...telling him that their ancestors had come to see peace and God in America. They found death. A thousand in his village. Five others like it destroyed in a space of several years by a laughing monster many now said was dead, killed in a plane crash when he was caught five years ago.  
  
A monster Ryou now knew was still alive.  
  
"Ryou-chan...?"  
  
"Son, are you alright?"  
  
Ryou gazes at his parents. He'd always known deep in his heart that his relatives were alive; he just never admitted it in public. It was too much a risk for them...and his own peace of mind. Too much death and destruction followed him like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It had all stemmed from that one day, then augmented the day he had fled with the last survivors of his unit to America before the dragnet closed in on him.  
  
He fled. He had run away. And had kept on running.  
  
From Sonia when she lost her dad...  
  
From Mary when she wanted to get out of the game...  
  
From Kaori when she wanted more than just being partners...  
  
"Excuse me," Ryou sighs, rising to head onto the back porch...  
  
...only to have a smaller man in a trench coat waiting for him, a light smile on his face. Two burly men stood behind him, both nearly Umibozu's size and clearly well-trained. "Hello, Ryou," he smiles. "It's a pleasure to meet you at last."  
  
"Oh, Shuntarou-kun!" Yoshihide smiles. "How nice to see you again. C'mon in. Some tea?"  
  
"Please," the director of the Sakuko nods...  
  
* * *  
  
With night having fallen on Japan, it was morning in New York City, the sun shining brightly on a glass-enclosed skyscraper in mid-Manhattan near the Empire State Building. Standing in his office, the chief executive officer of Phelstas-Field Enterprises stares at the teeming masses far below. Somewhere out there, the movie once said, a crime was happening. It was a sorry statement on American society that people could actually take humour at such words, but a nation that prided itself on guaranteeing the personal liberties of its citizens was bound to pay the price for such open-mindedness sooner or later.  
  
Of course, the price could easily be deferred if the right sort of problem solver was around to help, Marcius Phelstas had concluded years ago when he and Kenny Field founded their private investigations firm...and created the concept of the sweeper. Both ex-Special Forces...Marcius a Navy SEAL lieutenant-commander, Kenny an Army Ranger captain...they had worked in many trouble spots, both as military officers and later with the CIA. Having seen the ugly side of humanity for years, they knew if the right sort of force was unleashed at the right place, it would pay off handsomely for society later. Their company, whom they founded with the help of their teammates and warriors from around the world, existed to provide that force to the needy and desperate. It was a costly venture as witness what happened to Kenny, but a worthwhile one.  
  
The door opens to reveal his secretary. "Mr. Phelstas, there's a Mr. Ijuuin calling in from Japan on Line Two."  
  
Marcius blinks, his good eye widening with surprise...he had lost his left eye in his final op for the Company, wearing a patch over it and earning his street name One-Eyed Marcius...then nods. "I'll take it here," he stabs the control on his desk, then looks out the window. "Falcon, it's been a while! How's the missus?!"  
  
"Better than normal," Umibozu's voice echoes over the speaker. "Did you know Ryou had a sister?"  
  
"Kenny told me once about that. Kiyomi's her name."  
  
"'Ren' as her friends know her," Umibozu confirms. "She's a part of the Sakuko, a Crusader. Did you hear what happened at the New Harbour Centre here in town?"  
  
"Came over CNN last night," Marcius sits down. "Did you scope the wreckage after Tokyo's finest screwed up the job? How's Ryou?"  
  
"Don't know where he is, but I know he's still among the breathing; he's way too tough to cash it in so soon. Scoped the place out when Saeko Nogami got me the chance. It appears an old 'friend' of mine might not be with his compadres in Hell."  
  
Marcius' eye narrow. "Our old friend Simon, you mean?"  
  
"Hai," Umibozu growls.  
  
The American chuckles. "Do you think Ryou found out?"  
  
"Probably, which is why he went to take the place down even after doing the initial recce and seeing the size of the OPFOR. If the characters running the place have friends among the breathing, things'll get pretty hectic very quick. You can bet the Sakuko'll be in on it. Want a piece of the action?"  
  
"You're on," Marcius grins. "See you in a day. Looking forward to meetings Mrs. Falcon. Ja nai!"  
  
He stabs the control to cut the line, then turns to see Sonia Field standing there before him, a grim look on the blonde's face. "I take it you want in on this," Marcius gazes at his goddaughter.  
  
"Yeah, I want in," Sonia nods.  
  
"Okay," he sighs. "Call Mary in L.A. and ask if she wants a part. And call Francois in Brussels and see if he can get that extra P80 I wanted to get for Ryou's partner."  
  
"Got it," Sonia runs out...  
  
* * *  
  
"Something bothering you, son?"  
  
Ryou looks up to see Shuntarou Aramaki gazing at him. The two now relax on the back porch of the Saeba home. The director's guards, who both turned out to be pretty smart fellows, and Mami were inside enjoying tea and a late meal with his parents. His parents! They were alive, living a quiet life in Japan with his sister while he was fighting for his life and others, then blazing his own trail. "A lot's bothering me," he sighs. "I wonder if coming here was a smart thing, especially for Mom and Dad."  
  
"You're worried you'll lose them like you've lost many of your other friends and loved ones," Aramaki smiles, sitting down beside the sweeper. "Understandable fear, son. You're caught between trying to form a link with your past and the fear of seeing that bridge burned by the slimebags you've fought since you were a kid. You didn't run away from anyone, Ryou. You were protecting people. You win some and lose some. It's the nature of this game."  
  
"I did run from people I cared for," Ryou sighs. "My first partner, Kenny Field. He was part of the CIA team that got what was left of my unit out of the jungle. I left his daughter in New York orphaned..."  
  
"Not totally; Marcius Phelstas was there. 'Sides, she blamed you for her father's death."  
  
"It wasn't enough," Ryou shakes his head. "Yeah, she hated me. I wanted to give her the chance to resolve it on her own. What she really needed was help in resolving her grief. I wasn't there for her and I should've been. Some way to repay her father for saving my ass from that hellhole."  
  
He then gazes at his hands. "My second partner, Rosemary Moses...Bloody Mary. She got to hate this job, so she wanted out. I wanted her to stay in and I nearly got her killed. Some partner I turned out to be for her. My third partner, Robert Harrison. We parted amicably, but later came together to protect Princess Angela...and he died in my arms. Same thing with my fourth, Hideyuki Makimura; that's after I came to Japan. He died in my arms. I let him die. Now I have his sister Kaori as my fifth partner. Will she die, too?"  
  
"Risk of the job, son," Aramaki smiles. "Stop being so hard on yourself, Ryou. Field knew the risks of the game. He died fighting for what he believed in. Yes, his daughter got the wrong story, but that's life. Moses knew it too and wanted out. You paid her back for your mistake when you helped her husband escape Craip. Makimura and Harrison understood it, too. You can't be a white knight to everyone. Your sister had to learn that, too. It hurt her just as bad. But now, you want to come in from the dark, have something more to your lives than just fighting for the right thing. You have the chance to regain what you've lost, Ryou. Take it before it's really too late."  
  
Ryou gazes at the older man. "Even with Simon Hector Alonzo De Perez still alive?" he mutters, his voice ashes.  
  
Aramaki pales. "Son, if that's a joke, it's not funny."  
  
"I wish it was."  
  
The two exchange a knowing look, then Aramaki rises. "Shun! Takao!!" he barks at the men inside.  
  
"Yessir?!!" they rise.  
  
"Have a moving team up here on the double," the director barks. "I want everything here moved out and shipped to Ryou's apartment in Shinjuku ASAP. You're coming with us, too, Mami-kun. Then I want a Castle team to go to that place and scope it out, make it tighter than Fort Knox!! Move!"  
  
"Hai!!" both men snap, then race off to make calls.  
  
"Oh, dear, another potential hostage situation?" Ikuko yawns.  
  
"Possibly," Aramaki smiles.  
  
"Mom, how can you be so calm about this?!" Ryou wonders, stunned at the cavalier attitude his parents were showing.  
  
"We've been in five crash moves like this because of Ren's work, son," Yoshihide chuckles. "Don't worry; houses and all that can be rebuilt in case the worst happens. Now, who did you get so angry to light the fire under Shuntarou-kun like that?"  
  
Ryou sighs. "The man who ordered the deaths of my adopted parents and the slaughter of my village."  
  
* * *  
  
Umibozu gazes out the window of the Cat's Eye at the growing night, sipping coffee as he pieces his way through a photo album that seemingly had survived more fighting than himself. Damn, he WAS getting old if he was concerned enough..."scared" wasn't the right word...to call Marcius in. But Simon De Perez, known to many in Latin America as Mad Simon, was enough to bring out a lot of concern. If Ryou knew the butcher was still alive, it probably explained why he charged into the New Harbour Centre all alone.  
  
To avenge his adopted parents and settle a score.  
  
Despite his many words on the matter in the past, there did come times when one's morals and emotions did get in the way of the job. When revenge and justice became a viable motive to jump ship and hop to the other side. Umibozu had done that once, when De Perez's forces had unleashed a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the mountain villages, concentrating on the native tribes and the Asian farmers who had migrated to America since the last century.  
  
As a mercenary, Umibozu should've concentrated on getting the job done and ignored bystanders. He couldn't, not with De Perez in charge of his nation's internal security. The man was a mix of a perverted bloodthirsty xenophobe and rabid nationalist, a Spanish- speaking Nazi in the South American jungle. Yet as long as his government was rabidly anti-Communist, they won favour from the idiots in Washington...and won a legitimacy that permitted them to ravage the poor folk virtually unopposed by the rest of the world.  
  
Hayato Ijuuin had gone to America under the umbrella of the Sakuko to train in special weapons skills with the Army's Rangers and the Navy's SEALs. Doing time in Vietnam in the early part of that war, he made a good accounting of himself on five tours with the CIA under the Phoenix Program. He also fought with the large contingent of Korean troops sent there by Park Chung-hee in payback for the American work in the Korean War. They, once they got over their understandable distrust of anything Japanese, gave the big man the Korean version of his nickname, Haebangju. After his time, he took his leave from the Sakuko...this was way before Aramaki's time as Director...and put his services on the open market.  
  
Simon De Perez was his first employer. At first, Umibozu was impressed by the man, an army officer who had trained at a dozen schools across Europe, was fluent in a half-dozen languages and seemed determined to keep the disciples of Marx, Lenin and Mao out of his country. However, Umibozu realized right away that De Perez was far worse for his country than the rebels he fought. In the years he was there, Umibozu encountered real Communists only once. Other times, he was busy fighting armed civilians simply trying to defend their homes and property from being pillaged and destroyed by the government. Among those civilians was a young Ryou Saeba.  
  
When he worked with his company of mercenaries, operations went well, resulting in little casualties with them or with the folks caught in the crossfire. But there were six times when he was tagged with government troops, animals who had no compunction in destroying villages and slaughtering defenceless civilians on a whim. And in those times, Umibozu made very sure they never lived to boast about it in their barracks.  
  
His friends were aware of what Umibozu did and egged him on. They had their morals, too. However, the mysterious disappearances of his best troops was attracting the general's unwanted attention, which soon exposed Umibozu. He would've bought it himself hadn't Ryou's fragmented battalion of rebels and a black ops team from the CIA under Marcius Phelstas and Kenny Field stepped in. His friends tragically paid the price thanks to De Perez's troops right after. But a measure of revenge came later when Washington turned its back on De Perez's government, allowing a reborn rebel army to overthrow him and drive him into hiding, eventually tracking him down and ending his life once and for all...  
  
...or so the world now believed.  
  
Slipping off his glasses, he rubs his eyes, then gazes at the street. He was forty-six right now, married with no kids save a ward in Maki Himuro and an informal ward in Kasumi Asou. Miki wanted to start a family soon; she was thirty-four and sooner or later, her biological clock would tick out. Women were so damn unlucky that way, he had long mused. His eyesight was shot, not getting better; in that fiasco with Kenny's daughter, he nearly killed Kaori with a shot he meant for Ryou. He was still atop his game, but he had to admit, he was mortal. Marcius, someone Umibozu long counted as friend and equal, knew when to quit. Maybe it was time to lay up the gun and allow others to take the field.  
  
The door opens, revealing Saeko. Umibozu gazes at her, noting a determined glint in her eyes. She must have visited Hideyuki's grave sometime earlier. She always seemed much better when she had the chance to be with him. "Hi," she smiles, then blinks.  
  
"What is it?" he wonders.  
  
"I...oh, excuse me!" she gasps, then laughs. "I've never seen you with your glasses off before."  
  
Umibozu blinks confusedly, then chuckles, waving her to a chair. "Coffee?"  
  
"No thanks," Saeko sighs. "I need to get some sleep tonight. Someone barked at Dad's door to get the hounds off Ryou, so it might get interesting sooner or later."  
  
"It will," Umibozu grimaces. "Ever hear of Simon De Perez?"  
  
Saeko blinks. "Mad Simon?! The one you once fought for...and later stabbed in the back," she added diplomatically.  
  
"I was more than happy to do that," he smiles. "He's alive."  
  
Silence. "Here? In Japan?"  
  
"Possibly. That's why Ryou took your job without caring who he was up against. Twenty years ago, De Perez's men killed Ryou's adopted parents and slaughtered his village. I was there."  
  
"And you killed those men in return," she muses. "You saved Ryou's life, probably. No wonder he likes you."  
  
"He paid the favour back when I got caught and was set up to take a fall," he chuckles. "That's when Ryou and I met Kenny Field and his partner. Ever hear of Marcius Phelstas?"  
  
"One-Eyed Marcius? Hai. He's coming here?"  
  
"With friends: probably Sonia Field and Bloody Mary. We'll have to get the Sakuko into this as soon as we can; they're the only ones with the clout necessary to keep the Internal Ministry off our backs and sweep this under the rug," he sighs, then stares at her. "You ever knew Ryou had a sister?"  
  
Saeko pales, then blinks. "She's here?"  
  
"In Ryou's apartment. Before he went into the New Harbour Centre, he transferred his property and company to her...what is it?" he stares at the shocked inspector.  
  
Saeko reaches into her pocket to draw a small wallet. Inside is a picture of a twenty year old Saeko with Ren beside her, looking very much like the working partners and lovers they were in such innocent times. "Angel..."  
  
Umibozu blinks, then grins. "So...you're Sparkles."  
  
"Hai," Saeko smiles, holding up one of her throwing knives. "She called me that because of my ability to use these. 'Very dangerous jewellery,' she said!"  
  
"I admire her taste," he smiles. "Saeko, can I offer some advice to you?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're what; thirty right now?"  
  
"Hai."  
  
"Then go be with your Angel," Umibozu stands, slipping on his glasses. "I'm not saying settle down and be a homemaker like your father would want. I'm saying give your life to something other than your job. Just like I should be doing now."  
  
With that, he moves to close things down. Saeko blinks, then stands. "Good night, Hayato," she smiles, then heads off...  
  
* * *  
  
To be continued... 


	3. Reunions

"Are you alright?"  
  
Umibozu sighs as he strips the muscle shirt from his chest, now just in his boxers. The plastic-like scars from dozens of past battles criss-cross his still hard muscles. Damn, he was still in pretty good shape. Well, he'll be ready for what was coming up, both with Mad Simon later...and right now.  
  
He then gazes at Miki, who relaxes in their bed reading a newspaper, now in her usual cotton nightgown. Buddha, she was so beautiful. What had he EVER done to deserve someone like her? And because he was so busy putting out fires whenever they arose, he had nearly forgotten her. Well, that wouldn't happen tonight, nor ever again, he vows. He was a man of his word.  
  
Rising, he sits beside her, gazing intently into her face. Miki blinks, unused to this sort of scrutiny from her husband, then sets the paper aside. "Are you alright?"  
  
Leaning down, he gently covers her mouth with his own, showing a tenderness NO ONE would expect from Umibozu. Miki blinks, her own mouth fumbling in response, then as they break away, she gapes at him. "What was that for?"  
  
"Well, let me ask you something, Mrs. Ijuuin," he smiles. "Why did you fall in love with a no-account merc like me?"  
  
Miki blinks, suddenly sensing where this conversation might actually be going. "Well, Mr. Ijuuin, I suppose I'm going to have to show you why I did...and do...love you..."  
  
* * *  
  
"Hey, Saeko, c'mon in," Kaori smiles as the inspector steps in, an overnight bag slung over her shoulder. "Um...what's with that? Something wrong?"  
  
It was now fast approaching eleven o'clock, with Ren having already turned in. The cats were lounging around the place, a couple, including Sparkles, coming over to inspect this stranger in their new domain. "Where is she, Kaori?"  
  
"Who?!" Kaori is non-plussed, then smiles. "Oh, you heard about Ren, huh! She's already gone to bed!"  
  
"First guest bedroom beside Ryou's?"  
  
"Er...hai," Kaori blinks confusedly.  
  
"Thank you," Saeko smiles as she marches down the hallway, the cats trotting after her.  
  
Kaori watches her, then scratches her head. "Do they know each other?" she muses...  
  
* * *  
  
The inspector stops at the door, then peeks inside the room. Ren had already set up all the necessary equipment to keep her in touch with the Sakuko's command centre in the Imperial Palace. So she was in reserve status. Smiling, Saeko steps in, then closes the door. The lady in question is now under the covers, a pillow tossed over her head to block outside light and one hand tucked under another pillow, no doubt holding her pistol.  
  
Ren stirs, sniffs from her nose twitching fluttering in the air between them. "I smell a woman I haven't been with in nearly seven years," she whispers.  
  
"Hai," Saeko grins.  
  
"And has that woman come back for me?"  
  
"Hai, dearest Angel, I have," Saeko purrs. "So...are you good and naked under those covers?"  
  
"You'll have to take your clothes off and get in here to find out, my lovely Sparkles," Ren shifts the pillow off her head.  
  
The moon then takes the chance to shine on Saeko through the window as the inspector deftly removes her blazer and skirt. Slowing down, she unbuttons her shirt, then reaches behind her to unsnap her strapless bra. As it falls from her, she then gently lowers the garter on her right leg holding her throwing knives. The garter belt and nylons come off, then her panties. Once that's done, she walks over to draw the covers back, grinning on what she sees. "Oh, God, I've forgotten how beautiful you are."  
  
She slips atop Ren, who draws the shirt from her shoulders, then they shift to their sides as the hunter slips the covers over them. "So have I," Ren kisses her. "How long will you be here?"  
  
"As long as you want me, Angel," Saeko smiles.  
  
"Forever?"  
  
"And beyond," they kiss again...  
  
* * *  
  
"Cityhunter - Grand Finale"  
  
by Fred Herriot  
  
fherriot@yahoo.com  
  
**** **** ****  
  
Parts 1-3 edited by E.B. Kushnir  
  
**** **** ****  
  
Based on "Cityhunter," created by Tsukasa Hojo  
  
**** **** ****  
  
PART THREE - REUNIONS  
  
Next morning...  
  
Kaori grumbles as she feels multiple feet bounce over her, then shifts herself, causing a couple of the cats who chose to share her bed to stumble off. Hammers is there, bouncing back on her as she leans down to lick the woman's chin. "Aaah, alright, already!!" Kaori grunts as she slowly rises, gazing at who else chose to be with her. "What is it, guys, you never seen a girl sleep before or does Ren chase you off her bed?"  
  
Several mew as Kaori stumbles out of bed, slips a yukata over her shoulders, then heads out. With Ren and Shizuka living there, the rooms on the fifth floor were taken. Fortunately, if they needed space for clients...or the Saeba twins' parents should they elect to live with them...they still had loads of room.  
  
Kaori stops, her ears picking up the clatter of computer keys in Shizuka's room. Looking in, she blinks on seeing Ren's assistant already up and plugging away on the compact PC now hooked to a modem and other units. "Do you ever sleep?"  
  
"Oh, good morning, Kaori," Shizuka smiles. "Actually, yes, I did get a few hours sleep. I got orders from Director Aramaki. Mr. Saeba and his parents are on their way down right now, then a team from the Protection Unit will come to proof the house against whatever unwanted intruders we can expect. Miss Saeba's still asleep, but I think Miss Nogami's up and around."  
  
"Oh, okay," Kaori heads to the kitchen. There, Saeko, now in her shirt and panties, nurses a cup of coffee. "'Morning, Saeko."  
  
"'Morning, Kaori," Saeko smiles. "So what's the news from the Palace? When will Ryou and his parents come in?"  
  
"Sometime later today..." Kaori blinks, then stares at her. "You were part of the Sakuko?!"  
  
"Hai, for five very hectic years after high school," Saeko nods. "I was partnered up with Ren as her Inquisitor, the one who made the bag girls and boys sing like canaries after Ren caught them...IF she was ordered to take prisoners."  
  
"So why'd you get out?"  
  
"I was too good," Saeko sighs. "The job was getting to me in ways I didn't like. Ren persuaded me to switch to the police and work at things that way. Sometimes, I wish she hadn't."  
  
Kaori blinks. Ren and Saeko were partners...and obviously lovers! "Then you knew about Ren and Ryou, right?!"  
  
"Not until your brother told me some days before he died," Saeko sighs. "It was quite the shock. Before then, I knew Ren's full name, but I never once connected her to Ryou. I didn't know how Ryou'd react if I revealed that his partner had told someone else, even me, about Ren. How would that look to both of them? You know how he's like when he's confronting his past; you saw it when Bloody Mary told you about him not knowing his birthday. And I didn't want to ruin his partnership with Hideyuki-kun. I had no right to do that. And...when your brother died, I decided to keep silent about it...in honour of Hideyuki's memory."  
  
Kaori senses Saeko confessing something else. "You really did love my brother, didn't you?"  
  
"Hai, I did," Saeko nods. "Your brother was a very good man, Kaori. He meant a lot to me. Besides, back then, Dad would've suffered a lot of public embarrassment if his elder daughter was known to have an affair with another woman. Ren didn't want to hurt me, so we parted and stopped seeing each other. I met your brother a year after."  
  
"Thank you," Kaori sighs. "Are you okay?"  
  
"After making love to my precious little Angel and sleeping in her arms for the first time in so long?! I feel great!" Saeko loopily grins, the bounce in her step all too apparent even to a sexual neophyte like Kaori.  
  
"But what about your old man?"  
  
"Screw him!" Saeko snorts, surprising Kaori again with an uncharacteristic outburst of profanity. "If he can't take what I am, what I do on my own time, then I won't deal with him anymore."  
  
"Could cost you your career, you know."  
  
"Well, if he threatens me that way, there are ways to make him take a long vacation," Saeko icily smiles. "I may have been out of the Sakuko for seven years, but the current director and I are good friends. If I need help, he'll be there to help me."  
  
"Lucky you," Kaori laughs, then blinks as the sounds of cars and trucks pulling alongside the house echo from outside. "Hey, who's that?!" she runs to the window.  
  
Footsteps are heard in the stairwell. Kaori runs over as the door opens to reveal Ryou. "RYOU!!!!" she gasps, flying into his arms. "Are you alright?!!"  
  
"Ooof!!" Ryou nearly collapses under Kaori's tackle, then smiles. "Yeah, I'm fine! Oh..." he looks behind him.  
  
Kaori blinks as a shorter man looking like a grey-haired Ryou in his mid-fifties and a still-beautiful, tall woman of equal age come up, both carrying overnight bags. "Gods..."  
  
"Kaori, these are my parents, Yoshihide and Ikuko Saeba," he smiles. "Mom, Dad, this is my partner, Kaori Makimura."  
  
Kaori blushes. "How are you?" she tries a friendly wave.  
  
"Good heavens, Ryou, are you starving this poor girl?!" Ikuko wonders, grabbing Kaori and dragging her inside. "We're going to get some real good food into you, Kaori-chan! Come along, Dear!"  
  
"Hai, hai," Yoshihide nods, then elbows his son. "Nice pick for a partner...even if she's as skinny as a rail, son!!"  
  
"Er...r-right, Dad," Ryou sighs, then looks to the two Sakuko agents who came with his parents. "Tell your friends to come right in when they arrive so we can get started right away."  
  
"Yes, sir," Shun nods as they head to the main floor.  
  
Ryou walks into the kitchen, seeing Ikuko already going through the pantry to get some food ready, chatting up a storm with Kaori and a very red-faced Saeko. Oh, so *she* was Sparkles, Ryou smiles inwardly. Maybe he could hook up with his sister to find some way to get Saeko back for all the times she tricked him into doing jobs for her...in a nice way, of course.  
  
With that, he heads to the guest bedroom, peeking in to see Ren still buried under the covers. Walking over, he sits on the bed...and finds himself facing the business end of her Desert Eagle! "Hey, hey, take it easy!!" he ducks back.  
  
Ren blinks, then gasps, lowering the pistol. "Geez, little bro', don't sneak up on me like that!!"  
  
Suddenly, the reality of their situation clicks in. After twenty years of guessing if their dreams were real or not, here they were, alive, finally together! Blinking as impish grins cross their faces, they laugh, fiercely embracing...  
  
* * *  
  
"Well, this is quite a nice home you have here, Ryou-chan," Ikuko muses, gazing around the living room as everyone enjoys a home-cooked meal around the table. The cats dart in and around as they work at getting some freebies. "You must get a lot of business to afford a place like this."  
  
"Some of the jobs I've done in the past paid for it," Ryou smiles. "I bought it the instant I came in from Los Angeles, using money I earned when I was working there. It formerly belonged to a Yakuza gang that was shut down about a year before I came in, so I got it really cheap...with all the fixings."  
  
"The gun ranges and all that," Kaori muses.  
  
"Hai," Ryou nods, sipping his soup.  
  
"Well, it's nice to know that our son and daughter are both doing their best to help other people," Yoshihide smiles, then gazes at Saeko. "And I see our daughter has quite the catch."  
  
The inspector's cheeks flame, ducking his stare as if it was an artillery round. She then gazes at Ryou. "Um...Ryou?"  
  
"Yeah?" the sweeper looks at her.  
  
"Um...I just want to say..."  
  
"Saeko?"  
  
"Hai?"  
  
"Forget it."  
  
Saeko blinks, then sees a churlish grin twitch Ryou's lips. "I'll get you back another way," he winks.  
  
Kaori glares at him. "In what way?" she taps her foot.  
  
"Leave them alone, Kaori-kun; it's between them," Ren hums. "No one elected you to be his surrogate mother, you know."  
  
Kaori jerks, surprised that anyone would call her up for her keeping a handle on Ryou's lechery. The door then opens to reveal Reika. "Hi, everyone! Hey, Ryou, you're okay!! What's going on outside; this place is crawling with spooks!"  
  
"My friends from the Sakuko, sister," Saeko smiles.  
  
Reika smiles as introductions are made and she is updated on the goings on at the Saeba residence, then magically, Nurse, a chocolate-tip Siamese, lands in her arms, then starts to rub against her. "Hey, cut that out!!" the detective squeaks, then smiles at Ren. "So, you're Angel, eh?! Instant Dad finds out that you're after Onee-chan again, he'll freak right out!"  
  
"I take it this was the fellow who tried to bring unwanted misery on my son and his partner?" Ikuko frostily hums.  
  
"One and the same, Mrs. Saeba," Reika sighs.  
  
"I see," Ryou's mother hums. "I'll have to have a chat with Shuntarou-kun about that fellow."  
  
"Don't blame you," Reika smiles, then looks at Ryou. "By the way, some buddies of yours are on their way from America to help out. Marcius Phelstas, Sonia Field and Rosemary Taylor."  
  
Ryou sighs. Old home week again. "Right."  
  
"You okay, Ryou?" Kaori gazes concernedly at him.  
  
"I dunno," he stares at her, then smiles at his mother. "Thanks for the meal, Mom. Excuse me, please."  
  
He heads to the stairwell for the roof. "What's with him?" Saeko muses, gazing at Ren. "I mean, he's long resolved what happened between him and those two."  
  
"With them, not with his own heart, Sparkles," Ren sighs...  
  
* * *  
  
"Hey, you okay?"  
  
Ryou blinks as he finds Kaori standing beside him on the roof. On the ground, a technical van from the Sakuko's protection wing was setting up ground sensors, scoping out the area for possible avenues of attack. In her room, Shizuka was downloading data from local government offices to determine if there were vacant rooms anywhere close by which could be converted into an observation post for whoever might decide to avenge the New Harbour Centre raid. Saeko had called in police protection on Kaori's behalf to ward off the area from roving reporters; the media might, in its zeal to get news out, inadvertently make Kaori a target. Since the local media was more conscious of public safety concerns than their American counterparts...not to mention detesting being rolled...no reporter had called or visited since Ren chased them off. There were some trying to find out who Kaori's mystery friend was, but various civic offices had been told in an indirect way by Aramaki to be creative in misplacing the applicable files.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," he sighs. "Still a bit of a headache."  
  
"That's not what I mean," she bites her lips. Damn, it was so aggravating when she tried to make Ryou open up a bit more. If she said the wrong thing, or came at him too strong, he would close up in his peculiar shell and she'd get nowhere. "How does it feel to have your parents and sister with you now?"  
  
He sighs, sensing the hesitance in her voice. She wanted to know much more. There were so many times he wished Kaori would just leave him alone. He was so afraid at times for her, wondering if he was cursed to see close friends die if he opened up too much.  
  
"I'm not sure how I feel about that," he muses. "I mean, it's nice to have a family again...but I hardly know them, even Ren- chan. There's so much I've missed with them, growing up with them, learning my family's stories, making a life with them. They're strangers to me." Staring at her, he crosses his arms. "How would you feel if your real father was alive and well somewhere, someone you've never known...and then you bump into him one day?"  
  
"Like I missed something really important," she sighs.  
  
"Well, that's how it is with my family," he nods. "Even with my dreams of Ren-chan, I always...no, that's not it," he shakes his head. "I knew somewhere, I had relatives. I had kin in South America. My family there was named Saeba. But after what I've been through...I couldn't risk meeting them, them..."  
  
"Losing them."  
  
"Hai," Ryou sighs. "And it's not just family, Kaori. It's my friends, too. People I've cared for as a surrogate family, I guess. Look how many I've had to bury! Kenny, Bobby, Hideyuki, all good people, all gone. I nearly did it with Mary."  
  
"And you're afraid it'll happen to me, right?"  
  
Ryou slowly nods. "Hai."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Surprise responds. Kaori smiles. "For caring so much," she leans on the fence beside him. "Look, I call myself your partner but there've been many times I've wanted a lot more from you. You want me to say it, Ryou? I love you. I'll be damned if I choose another man after being with you for so long. And I'd love it if you love me back, Ryou. That I'd be...your partner of partners."  
  
"My wife, you mean," he muses.  
  
"Hai."  
  
He sighs. "I do love you, Kaori...but it's not exactly what you'd want from me," he bites his lips. "I'm scared, for you and for me. I'm very scared. If I bring you too close, do you die? Call it bad luck, a dark kami, what have you; it's been the story of my life. Atop that, when your brother died, I took an oath. I'd protect you, watch out for you. I'll do that no matter what. But with what I was through before, if you got too close..."  
  
"It must've seemed like Hobson's choice to you," she muses.  
  
They gaze at each other, allowing their other senses to drink in what was before them. So it was finally out in the open. Four years of dancing around the problem between them, now finally aired out, with a choice before them. Kaori's choice...marriage, being Mrs. Ryou Saeba...frightened Ryou, gave him images of visiting her at her family grave. Ryou's choice...keeping Kaori at a distance, as a friend and work partner, but no emotional involvement...would make him feel much easier, but break her heart.  
  
Hobson's choice, indeed.  
  
He offers his arm. She slides against him, resting her head on his chest, allowing his masculine scent to intoxicate her. She loved these moments when they were alone, when the nerve-fraying times of combat and the aggravating silliness in their lives was gone, even for just a few minutes. There was still a gulf between them emotionally. But now, the gulf had definable limits. They knew the parameters that made it possible. Alter the parameters and the gulf could easily go away. But how...?  
  
"You were right, you know."  
  
"Hmm...about what?"  
  
"March twenty-sixth."  
  
"Eh?" she looks at him.  
  
"My birthday."  
  
She blinks. During Bloody Mary's visit, Kaori learned that Ryou never knew his birthday. She picked March 26 for him since it was the anniversary of their first meeting. Smiling, she leans against him. "A prophetic day indeed. How old?"  
  
"Right now, I'm thirty."  
  
"Good age," she stares at him, then kisses his cheek...  
  
...as both tense on hearing Saeko's startled gasp. They turn to see the inspector standing there, red-faced from intruding on them. "I'm sorry!" Saeko bows. "I didn't meant to..."  
  
"Oh, it's okay!" Kaori sighs. "Something tells me you want to chat for a bit! I'll be with Ren."  
  
She heads downstairs. Ryou blinks, then sighs. "I told you it was okay, Saeko."  
  
"Not just for the New Harbour thing," she relaxes beside him.  
  
"Even the other things," he smiles at her, then gazes at the city around them. "You're a good person to work with, Saeko-chan. Look, I know there are things you can't do now that you could in the Sakuko, so I'm happy to help when you want me."  
  
"Thanks," Saeko sighs, then stares at him. "How about you and Kaori? You...finally working things out between you? Believe me, all of us want to see you two finally together."  
  
"I feel like I'm at an impasse," Ryou admits. "In that way, you and Ren-chan are lucky."  
  
"If Dad doesn't try to botch it up," she sighs. "When I go to work later, he'll probably try to lay on several new fiances for me; he's been awfully quiet about that for the last while."  
  
"I suppose I've been lucky," he grins. "Parents are great to have around, but when they try to influence your love life..."  
  
"Amen to that!" she rolls her eyes, then sighs. "Speaking of which, I'm going to work. I'll see you later."  
  
"Yeah," he nods as she turns away, then smiles. "Saeko?"  
  
"Yeah?" she looks at him.  
  
"Don't break my sister's heart."  
  
"I'd rather stab myself than do that."  
  
* * *  
  
"Senor De Perez, we can't begin to apologize for this debacle," Daisuke Satoshi bows to the gentleman sitting before him. "This is a loss of face for us as well as the organizations you represent. Be assured, we will find ways to compensate you..."  
  
"Enough, Senor Satoshi," the Latino man before him sighs. In his early fifties with salt-and-pepper hair and the coldest blue eyes the Yakuza representatives sitting around him had ever seen, Simon De Perez was slender, yet whipcord lean under his fashionable suit. He was a man of very peculiar habits. He was a vegetarian who gained protein from eating seaweed soup. A non-smoker, he was also heavy into dairy products. Had any of the Yakuza known these were also the habits of a certain failed artist-turned-politician from Austria who died a half-century ago by his own hand, they would have more reasons to fear the man. "Raids like this were expected, no? There are always caballeros in every police force, people who happily leap over the laws they're supposed to safeguard. Don't worry about it, amigo. This is but a drop in the pocket compared to what we can bring up at a moment's notice."  
  
"It'll be some time before we can establish a new place of business, Senor," one of Satoshi's assistants reports. "It will mean a loss of business. Can your friends support that?"  
  
Honest criminals! The former general smothers a grin. These Japanese were still so naive, so gentlemanly, at times. "Yes, they can support such losses. We have business contacts elsewhere, so our customers will not be without their merchandise for long. In the meantime, what of Saeba? Has he been confirmed alive or dead?"  
  
"We don't know," Satoshi sighs. "You have to understand, what Saeba did was seen by normal folk as a very good thing. People will move to support him if he's out there trying to heal. He didn't get out of that place unscarred; we've seen the security tapes. So he might be now under someone's protection."  
  
"And Senorita Makimura?"  
  
"Under police watch," Satoshi shakes his head. "She actually isn't as dangerous as one would suspect of Cityhunter's partner."  
  
"Maybe," De Perez hums. "She may still have to be eliminated sooner or later. And the fellow who leaked the information about the New Harbour Centre to Senor Saeba?"  
  
"The commissioner?" Satoshi snorts. "Believe it or not, he kisses the Interior Minister's ass too much to be THAT smart. No, the one really responsible is his daughter, Saeko Nogami. She's a sly one. She and Saeba have worked together many times before."  
  
"But attacking a police officer carries strong repercussions here, Senor," another assistant warns.  
  
"Perhaps, if it's done openly," De Perez icily smiles. "But from what I understand of your words, Senorita Nogami has been a very big thorn in your sides for a long time. There are ways to make things happen without it being so open, you know. I suggest you think hard about it, amigos. Excuse me, please."  
  
Rising, he walks to the porch of the small mansion located in the woods of Chiba, across the harbour from Tokyo, his ears picking up the concerned chatter of his "allies" as they discuss the possible repercussions of a hit on Saeko Nogami. Fools. How were they supposed to get anywhere if they kept using gentleman's rules against the authorities?! No wonder some of his associates back in South America were so reticent on doing business here.  
  
Still, Japan was an untapped market for their produce, so the risk was just as great as elsewhere. Some of the more modern gangs were bowing to the universal allure of money and opening their markets to trade in crack cocaine, but the Yakuza "gentry" would never stoop that low. Well, too bad for them, De Perez sneers. If they got in the way, they could be made to get OUT of the way.  
  
So could the police...especially one annoying inspector.  
  
Looking left, he smiles on seeing a middle-aged Spaniard, showing the fairer hints of Basque ancestry. He had offered his services to De Perez in the last years of power, helping the general flee from the slime who toppled his government, then faking his death so he could return to fight another day. Handy fellow.  
  
"You have your friends here and ready, Fernando?"  
  
"Si, Senor General," the man nods. "The woman?"  
  
"The lady cop first, then the sweeper's friend."  
  
"Si."  
  
Fernando heads out. De Perez sighs as he gazes at the distant city across the vast bay blanketed with fog. Fernando was a good man, but nowhere in Hayato Ijuuin's class. Pity the idiot proved so sentimental, De Perez hums. Well, if he was around...there were rumours to that end...his turn would come soon enough.  
  
* * *  
  
"I cannot believe you allowed this to happen!!" Commissioner Nogami snarls at Saeko later in his office. "I've been fielding calls from reporters for the last two days! What's going on?!"  
  
"What do you think, Father?" Saeko sighs. "Reporters aren't that stupid, you know. Someone must've figured out that you were trying to use them to hurt Ryou, so they want to know why. It's called 'being rolled.' Reporters don't like that at all."  
  
The older policeman trembles, sinking into his chair. "And what's this about you ordering protection for Kaori Makimura?"  
  
"She could be a target," Saeko reports.  
  
"That's her problem for associating with Saeba..."  
  
A knock is heard at the door. "Yes?!" both bark.  
  
Saeko turns to see a young rookie standing there, a large bouquet of roses and carnations nearly burying her. "Sorry to bother you, sir, but this just came in for Inspector Nogami."  
  
Saeko grins, taking the flowers and sniffing them. The card attached had the stencilled icon of a black angel on the cover. Opening it, she grins on reading the message, then nods to the young woman. "Thanks."  
  
She salutes, then heads out. Saeko turns to her father. "If you'll excuse me, Father, I have some pressing business before me. As far as I'm concerned, the protection over Kaori stands...or do you want me to ask Umibozu-san to handle it?"  
  
Nogami jerks; Falcon was worlds worse than Cityhunter. "I didn't think so," Saeko smiles, heading out.  
  
He harrumphs, then blinks. Since when did Saeko suddenly pick up a new boyfriend? Had he passed the "test" Saeko always used to see if the one was worthy enough for her? Fatherly instincts take over as he walks out of his office, noting that Saeko had already left. A delighted grin splits his face. This was very good. So, she was finally remembering her proper duties. Not that he didn't mind her being a police officer; unlike most of Saeko's peers, her father did appreciate the good work she had done, even if she was too impetuous, too unpolitic at times. But even in this day and age, it wasn't right for a healthy young woman like Saeko to allow her eligibility for marriage to go to waste.  
  
Walking over, he notices the other officers picking through their logs, then stares at the card. A black angel? He blinks as his hand opens the card to see the message:  
  
"Sparkles, I'm lonely. Come warm your Angel up...Ren"  
  
All colour drains from the commissioner's face. No, not HER! What was SHE doing back here?! Shuddering, he looks around, then turns to his secretary. "I'll be out for a while!"  
  
"Yes, sir," she nods, then watches him go. "What's with him?"  
  
"Search me," a passing patrolman shrugs.  
  
* * *  
  
Fernando grins as he watches Saeko's Porsche 911 stop before her small apartment in the north end of Shinjuku, the inspector stepping briskly out as she scampers into the building, a delighted grin on her face. Well, how nice of her to come home so soon; he was afraid that he'd have to wait all day for her to come back and face her punishment for hurting the general's operations.  
  
A moment later, a tall woman drives a Mazda up beside Saeko's car, then steps out. The assassin blinks as familiar features come to him. The clothes, cut of the hair, the angular nose and slender body hardened by muscle yet still quite feminine. A Cityhunter- wanna be? A relative? Shaking his head, he watches her head stop to comb her hair, using a pocket mirror, then heads inside.  
  
Another moment later sees an official car drive up. Saeko's father storms out of the vehicle, then gags on seeing the Mazda beside her daughter's vehicle. Wasn't this a happy circumstance?! A extra-special present for the general. With that, he nods to his friends, who disembark, heading in staggered pairs at two minute intervals towards the apartment building.  
  
Saeko sighs, watching this through the blinds of her bedroom window. So, they had traced things to her, eh? Uncouth or what; didn't they understand the more important things in life? Well, they were about to get a very rude surprise in return; not that she was annoyed enough to deal with her father at a time like this. She hoped Ren was in a good enough mood.  
  
The door opens to reveal a smiling Ren, a rose now sticking from the barrel of her Desert Eagle. "You're such a romantic," Saeko beams, walking over to draw the rose by her teeth from her lover's weapon, then draws one of her knives.  
  
"I can't help myself at times," Ren blows a kiss her way, then leans back as the thunder of angry footsteps echoes from the nearby stairwell. "Hi, Commish! Long time, no see!!"  
  
"You!!!" Nogami snarls, pointing accusingly at the hunter. "I thought you swore you'd never see my daughter again!!!"  
  
"Well, I can't help myself, especially when Sparkles *bared* all to for me to see," Ren grins, then sighs. "Excuse me."  
  
She aims behind the commissioner, then fires, the bullet tearing apart the head of the first of Fernando's team! Shoving the surprised elder Nogami into Saeko's room, Ren closes the door, then yanks a Mini-Uzi from her other holster. "Don't you just hate rude assassins, Sparkles?!!" she yells, her ears picking up storming feet from the other stairwell.  
  
"They have no sense of propriety at all!!" Saeko replies as shadows appear on both sides. "Kill them all, Angel!!!"  
  
"You promise to make love to me afterward?!!"  
  
"I'm already very hot, my sweet little Crusader!!"  
  
"What a demanding woman!" Ren gasps, then leaps out of the shadows, guns tracking on target.  
  
The assassins don't see their deaths coming in time to evade as bullets stitch their heads and backs! Sloppy field discipline; what sort of penny-ante amateurs was De Perez hiring, anyway? As three go down, Ren rolls back into shadow as she reloads her pistol. "Saeko-chan, I want a commitment ceremony!!"  
  
"Eh?!!" Saeko cries out. "You mean it?!!"  
  
"Hai!!" Ren scopes both ways, noting the last two schmucks, one to each side, were keeping out of sight. Damn, couldn't risk shooting through the floorboards; if she missed with the Desert Eagle, she'd probably hit some poor innocent on another floor.  
  
"What about children?!!" Saeko wonders.  
  
"We'll adopt them!" Ren replies. "Get artificial insemination if you want that!! Hell, find some nice guy to do it with if he's willing to do it with us!!! What do you think?!"  
  
"Oh, Angel, yes, yes, YES!!!!"  
  
Below, Fernando smiles. Idiot was too busy chatting with her lover to worry about protecting herself. Too bad. Nodding to his compatriot at the other end of the floor, he bolts up, grinning to see Ren's back turned to him...then gasps as he notices the barrel of her pistol tucked under her armpit, aimed right at him. The other assassin screams as a storm of Uzi fire takes him down, the Desert Eagle barking to terminally stop Fernando in his tracks!!  
  
Ren blinks, her ears picking up no laboured breathing from the lower floors...no matter how well you're trained, excitement and seeing your friends fall like dominoes always makes your heart pump faster, which increased oxygen demand...then sighs, opening the door to Saeko's apartment to see the inspector standing there, a coy smile on her face. "Hi, Sparkles," she winks as they kiss, then turns to see Commissioner Nogami on his back, gazing dazedly at the ceiling. "Hey, Commish, you okay?"  
  
Giddy tears now flow down his face, the shock of the moment overwhelming him. "Y-you have m-my blessings...!"  
  
Saeko and Ren exchange grins, then laugh...as the latter then screams, gripping her wounded armpit from the burn she got after an ejected hot shell casing from the Desert Eagle had seared through her blazer and shirt. "Damn, I knew I should use a revolver these days!" she grits her teeth as Saeko walks her over to the bed, the inspector trying desperately not to laugh...  
  
* * *  
  
"AIOWCH!!!!!!"  
  
"Relax, Ren, this isn't so bad!" Mami sighs as she dabs the burn with a cotton swab. "It's third degree, but localized, not much more than a popped blister. You won't need stitches, but it'll sting for a bit. Now, hold still, you crybaby!"  
  
Ren painfully fidgets, biting her lip, as the doctor cleans up the burn, then places a dressing over it. Mami set herself up on the third floor of Ryou's apartment when everyone moved in; Ryou's parents had a guest room on the fourth floor, which still left several rooms for clients when things returned to normal even if everyone elected to remain. Saeko, Ryou, Kaori and Reika relax by the doorway. "So how's your dad?" Ryou wonders.  
  
"Pretty shaken up; the doctor said he'll be in observation for a week," Saeko sighs. "I must admit, I never expected people to come straight after me like that. Whoever organized that little raid wasn't too shy about causing a ruckus."  
  
"Or they're from countries where it's expected to get back at the police for interfering in their business...like what still goes on in Latin America," Reika gazes at Ryou.  
  
"Yeah," he nods.  
  
Shizuka then walks up, a computer printout in hand. "Here's a picture of the one you wanted looked at, ma'am," she shows it to Ren as she slips on her jacket.  
  
Gazing at the rough-hewn face, the hunter frowns. "Oh, I know this guy. Basque extremist who went independent some years back. He's an asshole!" she shakes her head. "Last known employment?"  
  
"Simon De Perez," Shizuka smiles ruefully. "Fernando de la Rocha, age 36, born in the Spanish Pyrenees near Andorra. Expert in quick assassinations, usually concentrating on politicians or law enforcement...and misinformation ops."  
  
"Including making people 'die,' right?" Reika hums.  
  
"That's him...or WAS him, thanks to Miss Saeba," Shizuka nods. "Rumours of DGSE and MI6 black ops training in his youth before he decided to fight for his homeland, but with the recent moderation of the laws concerning the Basques, he found himself out of favour and a job. That's when General De Perez picked him up."  
  
Ryou tenses, his eyes sullen with rage. Revelations like THAT, he could do without. "Well, it confirms it now. Simon's alive. When will Marcius, Mary and Sonia arrive?"  
  
"Tomorrow morning from New York JFK via L.A. and Honolulu, due at Narita by five-thirty."  
  
"Okay, he'll probably clear the airport by eight if Customs aren't a problem," Ryou sighs, then stifles a yawn. "We'll be there by then to pick them up. Good night, everyone."  
  
"'Night!" the others chime.  
  
"Will he be okay?" Reika hums.  
  
"He should be," Saeko sighs as she allows Ren to draw her against the taller woman. "Personally, I'm glad. It's a chance for him to finally bury all those ghosts and get on with his life."  
  
"Speaking of which, we better make some preparations," Ren holds out her hand. "Your revolver, Kaori."  
  
Kaori blinks, then hands her the Smith & Wesson M629. Staring at the sights, Ren shakes her head. "Whatever possessed Ryou-chan to alter the sights? You can't hit the broadside of a barn."  
  
"Well," Kaori blushes, then grins. "It was his way of keeping me from falling too deep into this. Let me have a life afterward when it was all over."  
  
Ren and Saeko exchange looks. "Against De Perez, we'll all sooner or later be decisively engaged, even you, Kaori," the former gazes at the gun. "For you, it'll be worse; you've probably been scoped out as a 'soft' target, an easy kill. Let me work on this, then we'll hit the pistol range. Good night, folks."  
  
The couple steps out of the examination room. Kaori blinks, then after parting from Reika and Mami, heads back to her bedroom. Soft target. Easy kill. A icy grip of fear seizes her heart as Ryou's words on the matter come back. There were people out there who'd have no compunction whatsoever of killing her, all because she was Cityhunter's partner. And Mad Simon was a man who had wiped out whole villages to keep people intimidated and repressed to maintain his hold on power. Fear is then replaced by sullen anger. How dare he?! Who gave him the right to make the life of her beloved partner hell, even now? Umibozu and Ryou had buried the hatchet a long time ago, in fact looked on that war as just doing business. Why couldn't people be like them?  
  
Stepping into her bedroom, she closes the door, then flicks on the lights. No response. "Oh, darn, light burnt out!" she hisses, then tenses, the hairs on her neck standing on end. "Who's there?"  
  
"Such nice mokkori thighs, Kaori-chan..." a finger gently strokes her legs.  
  
A blaze of anger races through her as the thought of pulping Ryou with a hammer comes to mind...then she stops. He had called HER thighs "mokkori," Ryou's way of saying they were sexy.  
  
Her...  
  
Turning, she reaches down to cup his chin with her hand. "Are you here for a little ippatsu, Ryou-chan?"  
  
"What do you think, Kaori-chan?" he stares at her.  
  
They exchange a look, their eyes still visible from outside light. She smiles, drawing him towards the bed. "Yeah, you're still a hentai...but you're MY hentai."  
  
"Always am, always will be," he grins as they sit down...  
  
...then a cat yowls. "CITYHUNTER!!!!" both scream.  
  
* * *  
  
Outside the room, Reika lowers her eyes, the flash of defeat deep in those brown orbs as she turns away, fighting back her own tears. *You've won, Kaori. I hope you're happy together...*  
  
* * *  
  
To be continued... 


End file.
